Description du projet
Un meilleur contrôle des minuscules et puissants jets de fluides permettra de rationaliser l’injection sans aiguille
L’amélioration des méthodes d’injection sans aiguille de liquides dans des substrats mous pourrait avoir un impact considérable sur les domaines allant de la fabrication additive à l’administration de médicaments. Ces méthodes reposent sur l’injection d’un jet de microfluide sous haute pression, guidé par l’équivalent d’un tube capillaire avec une ouverture de très petit diamètre. Si le processus semble assez simple en principe, cela a été difficile à réaliser dans la pratique. Le projet BuBble Gun, financé par l’UE, prévoit de permettre une pénétration propre à la bonne profondeur sans éclaboussures ou dispersions, ce qui peut causer une contamination et altérer la dose de manière imprévisible. En s’appuyant sur une combinaison de méthodes expérimentales et numériques, l’équipe caractérise les étapes du processus afin d’améliorer le contrôle, la reproductibilité et l’application à grande échelle.
Objectif
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.
Champ scientifique
- 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
Programme(s)
Thème(s)
Régime de financement
ERC-STG - Starting GrantInstitution d’accueil
7522 NB Enschede
Pays-Bas