To overcome the limitations of current transdermal drug patches, researchers at Purdue University (News - Alert) have developed a prototype of a tiny drug pump that is activated by the heat and light pressure of a finger tip touching the pump. The aim of this new pump is to broaden the range of drugs that can be delivered through pain-free, simple to use skin patches. Babak Ziaie, Purdue professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering, is co-author of a paper entitled “A Skin-Contact-Actuated Dispenser/Pump for Transdermal Drug Delivery” that details the design and methodology for this new medical device.
Ziaie notes that the device will address current limitations of drug delivery through traditional skin patches. "There are only a handful of drugs that currently can be administered with patches. Most new drugs are large molecules that won't go through the skin. And a lot of drugs, such as those for treating cancer and autoimmune disorders, you can't take orally because they aren't absorbed into the blood system through the digestive tract." He says that the advanced pump design may use arrays of “microneedles” that will be able to deliver many more types of drugs by pushing them through needles that have a diameter about one-fourth the size of a human hair. The dispenser consists of stacked PDMS layers mounted on a silicon substrate and operates based on the evaporation and condensation of a low boiling point liquid. Therefore, there is no need for a heater or a battery, since the only required source of energy is the heat provided by skin contact. "It's like a bandage - you would use it and discard."
The work has been supported with funding from the National Science Foundation.
An electronic copy of the research paper is available from Emil Venere, [email protected].
Dr. Cronin is a Professor of Management in the Information Systems Department at Boston College. To read more of her articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by
Erin Monda