Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year (2017-2018 to 2018-2019).

For transdermal drug delivery, skin fluid and blood extraction, the conventional stainless steel needle causesx000D
pain to the patients and is hard to be integrated with other medical devices at point-of-care-test fields. Onex000D
solution to those limitations is micro-needle array because of its minimal invasive area/depth causing less painx000D
and ability to be integrated with other micro-devices. Moreover, no cases of infection by micro-needles havex000D
been reported so far. Such micro-needles can be solid or hollow with a length of 100-900 µm and an externalx000D
diameter of not more than 300 µm. The supporting company ExVivo Labs is pioneering novel point-of-carex000D
medical technologies for screening allergies. Its allergy test patches are based on extraction using micro-needlex000D
array of disease indicating biomarkers, such as immunoglobulin-E (IgE), which mediates type I hypersensitivityx000D
reactions, known as allergies. In the previous funded Engage project, we aimed to fabricate hollow siliconx000D
micro-needle array using MEMS microfabrication techniques, notably photolithography and deep siliconx000D
etching. The fabricated needles will be subsequently sharpened to under 10 micrometers for painless insertionx000D
into skin. In the current Engage Plus project, we aim to fabricate polymer hollow micro-needle array that isx000D
advantageous over silicon in certain aspects.