Dry Powder Inhaler made simple and effective
10/27/16 Micro components for medical devices is where our expertise lies. An example of this is used in every day life for people who have respiratory diseases such as asthma, COPD and emphysema. People who have these ailments generally receive their medicine via an inhaler. One type of inhaler is a dry powder inhaler (DPI) which is a device that delivers medication to the lungs in the form of a dry powder.
Dry powder inhalers strive to make self administering the medicine easy and quick. Micro Engineering Solutions has the exclusive worldwide rights to sell a DPI called the DoseOne™ single dose powder inhaler (US Patent #7,832,399 B2 and #8,360,057 B2). It has a simple design so people can correctly use it with ease. It is equipped with a simple dose readiness indicator and a dose delivery indicator — which means it conforms with strict FDA patient-compliance regulations previously only attained by expensive MDIs and multi-use DPIs.
To see a simulation of this product click here.
On the manufacturing side it is a simple, 3 part, compact, inexpensive design that has been prototyped, tested and benchmarked. The device aesthetics are clean and can easily be customized to meet branding requirements. If you are a pharma manufacturer out there looking to locate a novel, cost-effective, and efficient drug delivery option, please email Donna Bibber at Donna@microengineeringsolutions.com. For full details of DoseOne™ see www.dose-one.com
Ingestible Robot
10/20/16 Micro component-based swallowable robot is able to remove foreign objects, patch wounds and deliver medicine. To see Insider Science’s amazing video of this, click here.
Implantable Micro Device for Pancreatic Cancer
10/14/16 We have blogged a lot recently about micro component sized medical device implants. They are changing the way the medical field treats patients. We have been involved in many designs and production of these micro devices and continue to focus our attention in this fast growing area.
Pancreatic cancer’s 5 year survival rate is below 6%. Pancreatic tumors are hard to treat because the pancreas is so deep within the body, the tumors have few blood vessels, and the tumors are often surrounded by a thick, fibrous coating that keeps drugs out. A small, implantable device that delivers chemotherapy drugs directly to these tumors was developed to address the challenging location of the pancreas. It is a thin flexible film made from the polymer PLGA, which is widely used for drug delivery and other medical applications. The film is rolled into a narrow tube and inserted through a catheter. Once the film reaches the pancreas, it unfolds and conforms to the shape of the tumor. Drugs are embedded into the film and then released over a preprogrammed period of time. The film is designed so that the drug is only secreted from the side in contact with the tumor, minimizing side effects on nearby organs.
A clinical trial was done on mice. In most mice the tumor stopped growing and in some the tumor shrank. The researchers are now preparing to design a clinical trial for human patients. While they began this project with a focus on pancreatic cancer, they expect that this approach could also be useful in treating other tumors that are difficult to reach.
Micro Technology Wins the Nobel Prize!
10/6/16 The 2016 Nobel Prize for Chemistry has been awarded for the development of the world’s smallest machines!
Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir Fraser Stoddart and Bernard Feringa share the prize for the design and synthesis of machines on a micro scale. The machines are a thousand times thinner than a strand of hair. They could deliver drugs inside the body. The prize recognizes their success in linking molecules together to design everything from motors to a car and muscles on a tiny scale. “They have mastered motion control at the molecular scale,” said Olof Ramström, from the Nobel Committee. Due to the notoriety of the “Nobel Prize”, this will inevitably influence this type of research, making this cutting edge technology blossom due to the increase of funding that will head its way.
Jean-Pierre’s earlier work made him realize he could link different molecules together in a chain. This was the first step towards building molecular machines. In 1994, Prof Sauvage’s research group succeeded in making one molecule rotate around the other in a controlled manner when energy was applied.
Sir Fraser made a key advance by threading a molecular ring on to a rod-like structure that acted as an axle. Sir Fraser then made use of the ring’s freedom to move along the axle. When he added heat, the ring jumped forwards and backwards – like a tiny shuttle. His group later built on this discovery to build numerous molecular machines, including a lift, a muscle and – in partnership with other researchers – a computer chip.
In 1999 Bernard led the first research to produce a molecular motor that continually spins in the same direction. In 2011, his group built a four-wheel-drive micro-car: a molecular chassis holding together four motors that functioned as wheels.
This award could possibly make the technology of “micro” jump light years ahead! We at MES are looking forward to being directly involved in that growth!