Manufacture and applicator technologies for commercialisation of polymeric microneedle arrays

我们已经开发出一种新型的透皮贴剂，其表面带有微小的针头，可以无痛地绕过皮肤的角质层屏障，不会引起出血。这些针要么迅速溶解，在皮肤上留下小孔，这将使蛋白质和肽进入体内，要么膨胀，变成一种类似海绵的材料，使孔保持开放，并允许连续输送。我们的技术是独一无二的，可能会彻底改变药物的输送。有趣的是，我们还发现我们的可膨胀微针可以从皮肤中提取液体。这使我们能够监测一个人血液中的药物水平，而无需实际采集血液样本，这意味着可以预防血液采样引起的不良事件和并发症，从而使全球患者受益。在这个项目中，我们将专注于将我们的微针生产从实验室规模转移到工业规模，并设计和验证一种低成本的用户友好型涂药器。

We have developed a novel type of transdermal patch with tiny needles on its surface that painlessly and without causing bleeding by-pass the skin's stratum corneum barrier. These needles either dissolve quickly, leaving tiny holes in the skin, which will let proteins and peptides enter the body, or swell, turning into a jelly-like material that keeps the holes open and allows continuous delivery. Our technology is unique and could potentially revolutionise delivery of medicines. Interestingly, we have also found that our swellable microneedles can extract fluid from the skin. This permits us to monitor the levels of drugs in a person's blood without actually taking blood samples, meaning that adverse events and complications arising from blood sampling could be prevented, to the benefit of patients Worldwide. In this project, we will focus on moving our microneedle production from laboratory scale to industrial scale and design and validation of a low-cost user friendly applicator.