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HP's Inkjet Technology Used to Administer Drugs
jedrick conner writes "Hewlett-Packard's microneedle technology, used in its inkjet cartridges, could soon be used in transdermal patches to deliver a time-controlled release of drugs to patients.
Still at the prototype stage, the patch will likely be 25 mm square in size and 3 mm thick. It will incorporate an array of microneedles that are between 75 and 100 microns, which will penetrate the top dry layer of the skin, also known as the stratum corneum.
Above the microneedles is an array of wells, [and] those wells can hold one or more drugs, the device has "an active mechanism to push the drug through the needle"."
Could this be used to make a tattoo printer? Maybe they could release a laser tattoo remover as well.
"No one likes working in a hamster wheel, and your shop smells of cedar shavings from here." - TaleSpinner
I remember seeing articles in 1997 hyping up transdermal microneedle skin patches. Not much has come of it since.
I could easily imagine this could quickly become a useful method of self mediation. A sort of artificial gland of sorts that doesn't administer based on time, but rather based on biofeedback sensors. The alcoholic choose to overcome his problem by customizing an artificial gland which stimulates a release of pain or possibly general uneasiness once his blood alcohol level begins to rise. A person or criminal with anger management problems the recieves a release of calming chemicals when blood pressure rises to high. Of course, medicine is the perfect place to start, it could work not unlike a pacemaker and administer insulin when a diabetic's levels get low. The possibilities beyond simple timing are immense, give that they can accomplish easy replenishing and ofcourse that (as I assume) the microneedles do not actually hurt.
Imagine the phrase "Slap a band-aid on it and call it a day" becoming common in the medical community.
Demented But Determined.
They better not try to lock them down like with the ink cartridges... I want to be able to refill with the drugs of my choice!
There's a guy on the street corner who says he'll load it with zizzyjuice for $25 or a blowjob...
What happens is someone smacks the patch, or you bump into something?
That may not be a bad idea. In order to kick the habit, give people a patch, just like they do for cigarettes with the nicotine patch. Slowly reduce the dose, and eventually, the person isn't addicted anymore. Seems a lot easier than keeping them locked in a room for a couple days while they go through withdrawal and almost die, after which they will probably relapse, because they haven't stop being addicted.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The way inkjets work, they heat a micro droplet of the ink so much so that it emerges from the nozzle explosively and hits the paper. I wonder how much of the potency of the delicate drugs would remain after they have been subjected to so much of pressure and heat. Would they react with the metal/plastic in the nozzle?
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
Transdermal drug delivery has been around for ages, as well as microfabricated needles. For a recent state-of-the-art, see:
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/reprint/100/24/13755
The main problem (most of the physical fabrication issues have been overcome) is that almost any material used to fabricate the needles will quickly be recognized by the immune system, which will not only attempt to push the needles out but will also form a "fibrotic capsule" around the needles, preventing them from dispensing drug. How does HP intend to get around these problems? Smoke and Mirrors! This is the grand challenge of transdermal drug delivery, and it doesn't look like HP has gotten much further at all.
Additionally, I don't know about the (rest of the) heathens out there, but I wouldn't want needles permanently implanted in my arm, leaving my insides exposed to the outsides (and how do they plan to control backflow [i.e. bleeding] or prevent blood clots from blocking the needles, by the way??).
A much more promising approach for transdermal drug delivery is actually ballistic injection of (gold) (micro or nano) particles through the skin that are decorated with the drug of interest. This is reminiscent of Star Trek because it's an old idea that is based on some solid science. It might even be possible to use this for ballistic injection of DNA for vaccines, without having any of the drawbacks as described above for microneedles. Ask Dr. Google or see:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/iel5/7218/19491/00900385.pdf
and even better:
http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v5/n12/full/nri1728.html
You also have to keep in mind that the skin MUST be properly disinfected before either microneedles are implanted or ballistic injection is performed, otherwise you may introduce bacteria or other nasties into you deeper dermal layers (does anyone remember flesh eating bacteria?).
I wish I were old enough to put "Computer" on my resume.