Chi Hwan Lee1,2,11, Hojun Kim3,11, Daniel V Harburg2,11, Gayoung Park4,5, Yinji Ma6,7, Taisong Pan6,8, Jae Soon Kim9, Na Yeon Lee10, Bong Hoon Kim2, Kyung-In Jang2, Seung-Kyun Kang2, Yonggang Huang6, Jeongmin Kim5, Kyung-Mi Lee5, Cecilia Leal2 and John A Rogers2
1Weldon School of Biomedical Engineering and School of Mechanical Engineering and The Center for Implantable Devices and Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
3Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
4Department of Biomicrosystem Technology, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
5Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Global Research Laboratory, Korea University College of Medicine, Seoul, Republic of Korea
6Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering, Center for Engineering and Health and Skin Disease Resesarch Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA
7Center for Mechanics and Materials, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
8State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Sichuan, China
9Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
10Department of Bioengineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
11These authors contributed equally to this work.
Correspondence: Professor C Leal or Professor JA Rogers, Department of Materials Science and Engineering and Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 308 Materials Science and Engineering Building, 1304 W. Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801, USA.
Abstract
On-demand, localized release of drugs in precisely controlled, patient-specific time sequences represents an ideal scenario for pharmacological treatment of various forms of hormone imbalances, malignant cancers, osteoporosis, diabetic conditions and others. We present a wirelessly operated, implantable drug delivery system that offers such capabilities in a form that undergoes complete bioresorption after an engineered functional period, thereby obviating the need for surgical extraction. The device architecture combines thermally actuated lipid membranes embedded with multiple types of drugs, configured in spatial arrays and co-located with individually addressable, wireless elements for Joule heating. The result provides the ability for externally triggered, precision dosage of drugs with high levels of control and negligible unwanted leakage, all without the need for surgical removal. In vitro and in vivo investigations reveal all of the underlying operational and materials aspects, as well as the basic efficacy and biocompatibility of these systems.