MIT Technology Review Innovators Under 35

Extended delivery of vaccines to the skin improves immune responses

Plasmonic Paper Microneedle Patch for On-Patch Detection of Molecules in Dermal Interstitial Fluid

Co-Delivery of M2e Virus-Like Particles with Influenza Split Vaccine to the Skin Using Microneedles Enhances the Efficacy of Cross Protection

Suprachoroidal drug delivery to the back of the eye using hollow microneedles

Current status and future potential of transdermal drug delivery

Georgia Tech’s College of Engineering offers the resources of a major technological university and a location in the heart of cosmopolitan Atlanta. The College is the largest of the Institute’s six colleges, enrolling more than 60 percent of the students at Georgia Tech and about half of all tenured and tenure track faculty at the Institute. U.S. News and World Report ranks the College in the top four of engineering programs in the country. The College offers more than 50 different degree programs at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels through its main Atlanta campus and satellite campuses around the world. As a leader in engineering education, the College graduates the largest number of women and minority engineers in the country. Visit www.coe.gatech.edu to learn more. 

Georgia Tech College of Engineering

Dr. Prausnitz and his colleagues carry out research on biophysical methods of drug delivery, which employ microneedles, ultrasound, lasers, electric fields, heat, convective forces and other physical means to control the transport of drugs, proteins, genes and vaccines into and within the body. A major area of focus involves the use of microneedle patches to administer vaccines to the skin in a painless, minimally invasive manner that improves vaccine effectiveness by targeting delivery to the skin’s immune cells. In collaboration with Emory University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations, Dr. Prausnitz’s group is advancing microneedles from device design and fabrication through pharmaceutical formulation and preclinical animal studies through studies in human subjects. In addition to developing a self-administered influenza vaccine using microneedles, Dr. Prausnitz is translating microneedles technology especially to make vaccination in developing countries more effective.

The Prausnitz group has also developed hollow microneedles for injection into the skin and into the eye in collaboration with Emory University. In the skin, research focuses on insulin administration to human diabetic patients to increase onset of action by targeting insulin delivery to the skin. In the eye, hollow microneedles enable precise targeting of injection to the suprachoroidal space and other intraocular tissues for minimally invasive delivery to treat macular degeneration, glaucoma and other ocular diseases. Dr. Prausnitz and colleagues also study novel mechanisms to deliver proteins, DNA and other molecules into cells. Bubble activity generated by laser-excitation of carbon nanoparticles breaks open small sections of the cell membrane and thereby enables entry of molecules, which is useful for targeted and intracellular drug delivery.

In addition to research activities, Dr. Prausnitz teaches an introductory course on engineering calculations, as well as two advanced courses on pharmaceuticals, both of which he developed. He also serves the broader scientific and business communities as a frequent consultant, company founder and expert witness.

Dr. Prausnitz is a Regents’ Professor, the J. Erskine Love Jr. Professor in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering, and director of the Center for Drug Design, Development and Delivery.

Biotechnology

Materials and Nanotechnology

Biophysical Methods of Drug Delivery

Complex Systems

Georgia Institute of Technology Profile

Laboratory for Drug Delivery Website

American Institute of Chemical Engineers Profile

ResearchGate Profile

A New mHealth Patch Could Help Clinicians With Remote Monitoring

A Painless Skin Patch Simplifies Diagnostic Tests

These ‘Contraceptive Earrings’ Could Be Used to Prevent Pregnancy

Contraceptive jewelry could offer a new family planning approach

Long-Acting Contraceptive Designed to be Self-Administered Via Microneedle Patch

Methods and devices for thermal treatment

Methods and devices for drug delivery to ocular tissue using microneedle

Coated microstructures and method of manufacture thereof

Professor, Director of Center for Drug Design, Development, and Delivery, Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering

Learn how Dr. Mark Prausnitz micro needles research is helping drug  treatments be more effective in hard to reach places in the eye.

Dr. Prausnitz Micro Needle Eye Treatments - Ramblin' Research

Chandana Kolluru — Material Science an Engineering
Advisor: Dr. Mark Prausnitz

Microneedles for Polio Vaccination

Mark Prausnitz, Ph.D., of the Georgia Institute of Technology, talks about the potential advantages of using microneedle patches instead of traditional hypodermic needles for annual flu vaccination. Besides being nearly painless to use, the microneedle patches are simple enough for patients to apply themselves, which may encourage more people to get immunized.

Read more at: https://www.nibib.nih.gov/news-events/newsroom/diy-vaccination-microneedle-patch-may-boost-immunization-rate-reduce-medical

DIY Vaccination with Microneedle Patch

A newly developed vaccination patch could signal an end to the need for painful needles injections, US researchers said on Monday.

But the potential significance of the technique goes much further than avoiding uncomfortable jabs. 

The new patches could make life-saving healthcare available for the first time for millions of people in developing countries. 

Mark Prausnitz , a professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology and the leading researcher on the project, talked with Al Jazeera about how the patch could eventually help wipe out some fatal diseases.

[July 19, 2010]

US scientists invent new vaccine patch

Chemical engineering professor and inventor Mark Prausnitz from the Georgia Institute of Technology presents the breakthrough "reinvention" of the hypodermic needle: the painless, easy-to-administer, and remarkable microneedle patch.   Produced by Meaghan Kennedy and Stafford & Kristin Green.

The Remarkable Microneedle Patch

Select Inquiry Type