Award details

Manufacture and applicator technologies for commercialisation of polymeric microneedle arrays

Reference	BB/K020234/1
Principal Investigator / Supervisor	Professor Ryan Donnelly
Co-Investigators / Co-Supervisors	Professor David Woolfson
Institution	Queen's University of Belfast
Department	Sch of Pharmacy
Funding type	Research
Value (£)	709,445
Status	Completed
Type	Research Grant
Start date	08/08/2013
End date	07/08/2015
Duration	24 months

Abstract

unavailable

Summary

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.

Committee	Not funded via Committee
Research Topics	Pharmaceuticals, Technology and Methods Development
Research Priority	X – Research Priority information not available
Research Initiative	Follow-On Fund Super (SuperFOF) [2012-2015]
Funding Scheme	X – not Funded via a specific Funding Scheme

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