Uganda-first metabolic health research

Making invisible diabetes visible.

Nearly three in four African adults living with diabetes do not know they have it. GlycoPilot is a research program building dish-by-dish continuous-glucose evidence on the foods Ugandans actually eat, and an affordable tool that turns that evidence into everyday action.

Join the waitlist Read about the studies

Ethics first: no fieldwork before Ugandan REC approval.

One meal, two outcomes · illustrative

meal alone same meal, then a short walk

Illustrative only. In trials elsewhere, short walks after meals lowered post-meal glucose; GlycoPilot has not yet generated Ugandan CGM findings.

3 in 4African adults with diabetes are undiagnosed, the highest share of any world region.IDF Diabetes Atlas, 11th ed.

2×Uganda's diabetes and prediabetes prevalence has roughly doubled over the past decade.PLOS ONE, systematic review

1 in 7live births in Africa is affected by high blood sugar in pregnancy.IDF Diabetes Atlas, Africa

Matooke · posho · kalo · cassava · binyebwa · katogo · chapati · a rolex on Namirembe Road. No published study yet maps their continuous-glucose response, dish by dish. We intend to.

The evidence gap

Uganda's food, foreign data.

Type 2 diabetes develops silently over years, and its early stage is its most treatable stage. Some of the most promising actions at that stage cost nothing: what you eat first within a meal, when you walk, which preparations of your own staples serve your body best.

But that knowledge does not yet exist for Ugandan food. Dietary guidance is borrowed from studies of foreign foods eaten by foreign populations, and preparation method, boiled or fried, fresh or flour, pounded or steamed, changes glycaemic response so much that borrowed numbers mislead.

In 2025 this gap became a national argument, when a front-page story blamed staple foods for the diabetes rise and Uganda's clinical community pushed back firmly. Both sides argued without the one thing that settles it: modern continuous-glucose data from Ugandan adults eating Ugandan preparations.

GlycoPilot exists to produce that data. The studies are designed to be led by Ugandan investigators at Ugandan institutions, to begin only after Ugandan research ethics approval, and to place their findings in the public domain.

The science

Two studies, in sequence.

The program is research-first by design: the evidence is generated before the product makes a single claim.

Study A · Observational

The Uganda Glycemic Response Atlas

Fieldwork 2027 · In preparation

Around 120 Ugandan adults, spanning healthy, prediabetic and diabetic groups at one urban and one rural site, wear continuous glucose monitors for two weeks while their normal meals are documented and photographed.

A continuous-glucose map of how the Ugandan food matrix affects blood sugar
Preparation method treated as a first-class variable
Findings submitted for peer review and shared with the Ministry of Health and the Uganda Diabetes Association

Study B · Randomized pilot

The Citizen Tool Pilot

Trial from 2028 · Protocol in development

A registered, randomized pilot among adults recently diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, testing whether a mobile tool that translates the Atlas into personal everyday guidance is usable, acceptable, and associated with improved glucose control.

Publicly pre-registered before the first participant enrols
Independent safety monitoring with Ugandan endocrinology expertise
Feasibility endpoints first; efficacy reported honestly as exploratory

The tool

Designed for Ugandan reality, not imported assumptions.

ANY PHONE

Works on the phone people have

Designed for basic handsets over USSD and SMS on 2G, and for smartphones through a lightweight app that works offline and uses little data.

7 LANGUAGES

Speaks the user's language

English, Kiswahili, Luganda, Runyankole-Rukiga, Luo, Ateso and Lusoga, to be translated by clinician-translators.

SECONDS

Logs Ugandan food fast

Designed for tapping illustrated tiles of real Ugandan dishes, so no camera is needed. Portions in familiar local measures, not grams.

ACTIONS

Never a warning without an action

Every alert is designed to come with a step the person can afford and reach that day: eating in a different order, a short walk, or a referral to a nearby clinic.

BOUNDARIES

Refers, never diagnoses

The tool is designed never to diagnose and never to adjust medication, so that people become better-informed patients, earlier.

MOBILE MONEY

Priced for citizens

Designed for mobile money at a few thousand shillings a month, with community health worker and public channels for those who cannot pay.

Where we work

Uganda first. Evidence that travels.

Evidence generated in Uganda, designed from day one to power a product serving East Africa and the world.

Active program

Uganda

The founding program: the Glycemic Response Atlas and the citizen tool pilot. Both studies are designed to be led by Ugandan clinical investigators, with findings offered to the Ministry of Health and the Uganda Diabetes Association.

Planned

East Africa

The Kiswahili build makes the region a natural next step, carrying shared staples and shared evidence across borders.

Horizon

Global

A model for evidence-first metabolic health in any food culture the world's guidance has overlooked.

Policy brief available on request. For government, clinical, or research conversations, write to support@krinosystems.com.

About

Built from home, for home.

The cruelest feature of this disease is that its early stage is its most treatable stage.

GlycoPilot is a research program of KRINO Systems, founded by Latim Jonathan, who has direct family experience with diabetes. The program is being built Uganda-first by deliberate choice: because the burden is acute, because the evidence gap is real, and because a solution designed for Ugandan constraints is a stronger solution than any imported one.

KRINO Systems leads the program and designs the tool. The studies are designed to be led by Ugandan clinical investigators at Ugandan institutions, and their findings will be treated as a public good. The program is designed to operate under Uganda's research ethics framework and the Data Protection and Privacy Act, 2019.

Waitlist

Be first when the tool is ready.

The pilot begins in 2028. Leave your email and we will write when there is something real to share: study milestones, published findings, and early access.

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