Engineers build "smart" pills for drug delivery
Drug delivery methods have made great improvements in both ease of use and efficiency over the last several years. Slow-dissolving tablets, plastic coatings and now techniques that use nanotechnology have all allowed medicines to be delivered to specific tissues at specific doses and times.
These drug delivery methods range from oral pills to miniaturized targeted devices with control over the release of drugs. These tools serve as great aids in delivering drugs, spatially in providing high anatomic specificity, lower dosages and sustained doses with minimal fluctuations.
Recently, scientists have developed ways to improve these models to be "smart" systems that possess the ability to cater to each patients' needs. Such smart drug delivery systems could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry, but to do so they must be ready for mass production. For example, they should be manufactured inexpensively, loaded easily with drugs, delivered with minimal trauma and be easily tracked, programmed and controlled.
A process called lithography has recently been used by researchers at the Hopkins School of Engineering to help create smart drug delivery systems.
Lithography is an advanced method for printing on a smooth surface - but variations on lithography have been used for centuries around the world for printing and coloring various materials. By etching tiny circuits onto a surface, lithography allows miniature devices to be used for computation, memory storage, wireless communication, remote sensing and high-fidelity imaging.
Lithography creates patterns at the nanometer to millimeter scale and allows microelectronic devices and mechanical systems to be fabricated en masse on silicon wafer substrates. Although lithographic methods hold great potential for the development of more advanced and successful drug delivery systems, they have the limitation of creating only two-dimensional patterns, which significantly limits their functionality.
These drug delivery methods range from oral pills to miniaturized targeted devices with control over the release of drugs. These tools serve as great aids in delivering drugs, spatially in providing high anatomic specificity, lower dosages and sustained doses with minimal fluctuations.
Recently, scientists have developed ways to improve these models to be "smart" systems that possess the ability to cater to each patients' needs. Such smart drug delivery systems could revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry, but to do so they must be ready for mass production. For example, they should be manufactured inexpensively, loaded easily with drugs, delivered with minimal trauma and be easily tracked, programmed and controlled.
A process called lithography has recently been used by researchers at the Hopkins School of Engineering to help create smart drug delivery systems.
Lithography is an advanced method for printing on a smooth surface - but variations on lithography have been used for centuries around the world for printing and coloring various materials. By etching tiny circuits onto a surface, lithography allows miniature devices to be used for computation, memory storage, wireless communication, remote sensing and high-fidelity imaging.
Lithography creates patterns at the nanometer to millimeter scale and allows microelectronic devices and mechanical systems to be fabricated en masse on silicon wafer substrates. Although lithographic methods hold great potential for the development of more advanced and successful drug delivery systems, they have the limitation of creating only two-dimensional patterns, which significantly limits their functionality.
Be the first to comment on this story