Wax based Bio-MEMS Device for Drug Delivery
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Date
2016-01-17
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Johns Hopkins University
Abstract
The term “sustained drug release” first appeared in 1953 when scientists
attempted to use alkaloids and ion exchange to retard the release of drugs from capsules.The main motivation behind sustained drug release was to ensure that the drug was in contact with the stomach and intestine lining for as long as possible. Today, the motivation for using sustained drug release tablets has shifted to helping clinicians
increase patient compliance. A 2002 study found that sustained-release of Glipizide, an oral drug for Type 2 diabetes, increased adherence indices by 60%. Current drug release
systems, however, have not evolved and are limited by the tablet degradation properties.
Engineers have not been able to consistently develop oral drug delivery devices that can
last for more than 72 hours.
We propose to develop a 500 micron sized metallic theragripper composed of achromium/copper stress bilayer, a gold rigid layer and a paraffin wax trigger layer. The paraffin wax trigger layer can serve as a sustained controlled drug delivery component.
This study aims to begin examining the development of a system that uses paraffin wax as a drug delivery component. In order to do so, we examined some previous wax drug
delivery systems along with our own experiments. Successful completion of this initial study will provide future engineers with direction when attempting to develop safe,
scalable and effective drug delivery devices based on paraffin wax.
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Keywords
MEMS, Bio-MEMS, Wax, Drug Delivery