Influenza infection represents a major socio-economic burden worldwide. Novel delivery methods can render influenza vaccination easier and more acceptable by the public, and importantly confer protection equal or superior to that induced by conventional systemic administration. An attractive target for vaccine delivery is the skin. Recent studies have demonstrated improved immune responses afte...

This paper presents a novel design of MEMS based microneedle actuator with force feedback system which can be used for biomedical applications such as cell manipulation, drug delivery and DNA injection. The actuation mechanism of microneedle is driven by two electrostatic comb actuators. Since the manipulated objects are very sensitive, and can be easily damaged, it’s essential to have a force ...

Polymeric microneedles fabricated by microinjection molding techniques have been demonstrated using Topas COC as the molding plastic material. Open-channel microneedles with cross-sectional area of 100 lm · 100 lm were designed and fabricated on top of a shank of 4.7 mm in length, 0.6 mm in width, and 0.5 mm in depth. The tip of the microneedle has a round shape with a radius of 125 lm as limit...

We developed a new surgical treatment in which a microneedle is used for retinal endovascular cannulation to treat eyes with central retinal vein occlusion by flushing thrombus out of the central retinal vein as it passes through the lamina cribrosa. The eyes of 12 consecutive patients (12 eyes) with central retinal vein occlusion were successfully treated using this novel treatment. At 24 week...

Introduction Melasma and postinflammatory hyperpigmentation (PIH) are conditions commonly encountered by dermatologists, they often distressing to patients. While PIH can improve with time once the inflammatory process is controlled, melasma a condition that requires prolonged treatment maintenance. There numerous options, ranging from UV protection topical therapies (such as hydroquinone), mor...

Coming Soon 10:15 Networking Coffee Break Critical Issues—The Pharmacokinetics of Transdermal Delivery 10:40 Minimization of CYP2D6 Polymorphic Differences and Improved Bioavailability via Transdermal Administration Thean Yeoh, Ph.D., Associate Research Fellow, Pfizer Transdermal delivery has the potential to offer improved bioavailability by circumventing first-pass gut and hepatic metabolism....

PURPOSE To study the feasibility of performing retinal endovascular surgery with a microfabricated needle-based cannulation system at the level of the retinal microvasculature. METHODS A total of 40 retinal vein vessels, and 40 porcine eyes were used, and the eyecups were prepared under an operating microscope. Twenty retinal veins each were pierced with a microfabricated needle having an out...

Microneedle technology is one of the attractive methods in transdermal drug delivery. However, the clinical applications of this method are limited owing to: complexity in the preparation of multiple coating solutions, drug leakage while inserting the microneedles into the skin and the outer walls of the solid microneedle can hold limited quantity of drug. Here, the authors present the fabricat...

We describe, for the first time, the design, production and evaluation of large microneedle patches. Such systems, based on 16 individual microneedle arrays (needle height 600μm), were prepared from aqueous blends of 15% w/w Gantrez® S97 and 7.5% w/w poly(ethyleneglycol) 10,000Da. Ester-based crosslinking was confirmed by FTIR and mechanical strength was good. Insertion depths in a validated sk...

Intradermal (ID) vaccination can offer improved immunity and simpler logistics of delivery, but its use in medicine is limited by the need for simple, reliable methods of ID delivery. ID injection by the Mantoux technique requires special training and may not reliably target skin, but is nonetheless used currently for BCG and rabies vaccination. Scarification using a bifurcated needle was exten...