(5f) Mems-Based Drug Delivery Systems

Sophisticated design of drug delivery systems can be obtained by utilizing microfabrication techniques. MEMS techniques can provide electrical and mechanical microdevices to control drug delivery orally, transdermally and intravenously using structures fabricated on the micron size scale. In this study, two microsystems for drug delivery were fabricated. Polymer microneedles and wireless induction-heating devices. Biocompatible polymeric needles can be designed to penetrate into skin and safely degrade in the tissue. In addition to added safety, biodegradable polymers allow additional functionality for microneedles. Polymeric microneedles with drug internally encapsulated can work as a delivery matrix and should not require medical expertise like injections. As second drug delivery device, we developed a wireless system for generating micron-scale pores in the skin by thermal microablation to dramatically increase skin permeability, while maintaining the patient-friendliness of conventional patches. Micron-scale pores can be created using short, intense, and highly localized heating to painlessly micro-ablate the skin's outer surface (stratum corneum), which provides the primary barrier to drug transport. Altogether, these studies demonstrate the power of MEMS-based approaches to manipulate skin microstructure for drug delivery is a minimally invasive manner.