University of Michigan researchers have developed a new technology that can print pure, ultra-precise doses of drugs onto a wide variety of surfaces could one day enable on-site printing of custom-dosed medications at pharmacies, hospitals and other locations.
The technique can print multiple medications into a single dose on a dissolvable strip, microneedle patch or other dosing devices. The researchers say it could make life easier for patients who must now take multiple medications every day. The work could also accelerate drug development.
A new study led by Max Shtein, professor of materials science and engineering, and Olga Shalev, a recent graduate who worked on the project while a doctoral student in the same department, showed that the pure printed medication can destroy cultured cancer cells in the lab as effectively as medication delivered by traditional means, which rely on chemical solvents to enable the cells to absorb the medication.
Their study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
The technique was developed through a collaboration between the Michigan Engineering departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, as well as the College of Pharmacy, and the Department of Physics in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.
The researchers adapted a technology from electronics manufacturing called organic vapour-jet printing. One key advantage of the technique is that it can print a very fine crystalline structure over a large surface area. This helps printed medications dissolve more easily, opening the door to a variety of potential new drugs that today are shelved because they don’t dissolve well when administered with conventional approaches, including pills and capsules.
“Pharma companies have libraries of millions of compounds to evaluate, and one of the first tests is solubility. About half of new compounds fail this test and are ruled out. Organic vapour jet printing could make some of them more soluble, putting them back into the pipeline,” Shtein said.
“Organic vapour jet printing may be useful for a variety of drug delivery applications for the safe and effective delivery of therapeutic agents to target tissues and organs,” said Geeta Mehta, the Dow Corning assistant professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering and a co-author on the paper.
University of Michigan researchers have developed a new technology that can print pure, ultra-precise doses of drugs onto a wide variety of surfaces could one day enable on-site printing of custom-dosed medications at pharmacies, hospitals and other locations.
The technique can print multiple medications into a single dose on a dissolvable strip, microneedle patch or other dosing devices. The researchers say it could make life easier for patients who must now take multiple medications every day. The work could also accelerate drug development.
A new study led by Max Shtein, professor of materials science and engineering, and Olga Shalev, a recent graduate who worked on the project while a doctoral student in the same department, showed that the pure printed medication can destroy cultured cancer cells in the lab as effectively as medication delivered by traditional means, which rely on chemical solvents to enable the cells to absorb the medication.
Their study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
The technique was developed through a collaboration between the Michigan Engineering departments of Chemical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, as well as the College of Pharmacy, and the Department of Physics in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts.
The researchers adapted a technology from electronics manufacturing called organic vapour-jet printing. One key advantage of the technique is that it can print a very fine crystalline structure over a large surface area. This helps printed medications dissolve more easily, opening the door to a variety of potential new drugs that today are shelved because they don’t dissolve well when administered with conventional approaches, including pills and capsules.
“Pharma companies have libraries of millions of compounds to evaluate, and one of the first tests is solubility. About half of new compounds fail this test and are ruled out. Organic vapour jet printing could make some of them more soluble, putting them back into the pipeline,” Shtein said.
“Organic vapour jet printing may be useful for a variety of drug delivery applications for the safe and effective delivery of therapeutic agents to target tissues and organs,” said Geeta Mehta, the Dow Corning assistant professor of materials science and engineering and biomedical engineering and a co-author on the paper.
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