Dissolving microneedles for drug delivery

Microneedles are individual needles or arrays of needles in micro-scale widely used in transdermal drug delivery. They achieve painless administration with delivery of low but sufficient dose of therapeutic agents. Dissolving microneedles, made from biodegradable materials, are able to control drug release by altering their compositions and fabrication processes. In this study, we designed a double-layered biodegradable microneedles model, which functioned as a two-speed drug delivery system with consistent release of two kinds of drugs in 2 hours and 2 days respectively in vitro. This model also possessed strong mechanical strength with elasticity in penetration of flat skin model and irregular surface model following delivery of inclusions capsulated in the microneedles, which provided skin diseases and ocular diseases with a beneficial drug delivery method in further study.​Master of Science (Biomedical Engineering