Descripción del proyecto
Un mejor control sobre chorros de fluidos fuertes y diminutos mejorará las inyecciones sin agujas
El desarrollo de métodos sin agujas mejorados para inyectar líquidos en sustratos blandos podría tener repercusiones importantes en campos que van desde la fabricación por adición hasta la administración de fármacos. Estos métodos se basan en inyectar un chorro de microfluido a alta presión guiado por el equivalente a un tubo capilar con una apertura de diámetro muy pequeño. Aunque en principio parece sencillo, en la práctica ha sido difícil de lograr. El proyecto BuBble Gun, financiado con fondos europeos, prevé permitir una penetración limpia hasta la profundidad precisa sin salpicaduras o dispersión, que pueden provocar contaminación y alterar la dosis de manera impredecible. El equipo, que utiliza una combinación de métodos numéricos y experimentales, está caracterizando las fases del proceso para mejorar el control, la reproducibilidad y la aplicación generalizada.
Objetivo
The needle-free delivery of liquid jets into soft and heterogeneous substrates, e.g. human tissue, has been hindered by (1) the need to reach specific penetration depths with energy efficient means, (2) the break-up of jets that impedes control over the dose delivery, and (3) liquid splash-back after impacting the substrate that cause cross-contamination between injections. BuBble Gun is aimed at overcoming these challenges. My team and I have recently uncovered new operational regimes of cavitation with continuous-wave lasers. My next goal is to study the energy partition between the creation of bubbles, the formation of liquid jets, and the penetration of these jets into soft substrates. Fundamental insights on energy partitioning will then be applied to achieve major breakthroughs in jet injection, by (1) controlling cavitation within microfluidic confinement, (2) tuning the rheology of jets emerging from confined cavitation, and (3) deriving the relationships between fluid dynamics and material properties governing jet injection into soft substrates. I expect to advance the knowledge at the intersection of microfluidics, physics, and bioengineering, to enable unprecedented control over cavitation, jetting, and injection phenomena. We will develop a portable energy- efficient injection platform by using ultra-high-speed imaging, and quantifying injections with experimental resolutions below the microsecond and micrometer scales. The rheological properties of the jets will be tuned with biocompatible additives to ensure cohesion, before injecting them into in-vitro targets and ex-vivo skin. Numerical models will assist untangling the influence of microfluidic configuration and material properties on the injection outcomes. The ultimate result will be the predictable, reproducible, and efficient injection of liquids that will enable a wide-range of technologies, such as additive manufacturing, coating modifications, the delivery of drugs and vaccinations.
Ámbito científico
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsmicrofluidics
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesclassical mechanicsfluid mechanicsfluid dynamics
- engineering and technologymaterials engineeringcoating and films
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineeringadditive manufacturing
- natural sciencesphysical sciencesopticslaser physics
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitución de acogida
7522 NB Enschede
Países Bajos