Millions of people around the world are losing their hearing thanks to inner ear disorders and the pharmaceutical industry has spent years working to develop therapeutics to help address this patient population. But Jeff Borenstein, lead scientist for drug delivery at Draper, discovered by talking to experts in the hearing loss field that many of […]
Draper Laboratories
Powering the next generation of ingestible drug delivery devices
Traditional implants in the gastrointestinal tract are meant to pass through a patient’s system, delivering a drug in short bursts or recording the health of a patient’s colon. But in recent years, scientists have sought after ultra-long lasting ingestible devices that can deliver drugs for several weeks in a patient’s GI tract. Lyndra, Inc., a start-up […]
Wireless power source could enable ingestible drug delivery devices
Researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory have developed the means to wirelessly power electronic devices that stay in the digestive tract indefinitely. The team suggests that these devices could be used as sensors in the GI tract or carry drugs to be delivered over […]
3D model of female reproductive system could help test drugs for efficacy, safety
In January last year, the National Institutes of Health issued a new requirement for grant funding in basic science: Researchers must discuss how gender as a biological variable will impact their research. Teresa Woodruff, director of the Women’s Health Research Institute at Northwestern University, told Drug Delivery Business News that this helped support their effort to develop a model that […]
Draper, Pfizer ink ‘organ-on-a-chip’ deal
Draper said today that it inked a 3-year collaboration deal with Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) to develop Draper’s microphysiological system technology. The ‘organ-on-a-chip’ system is designed to improve preclinical safety and model diseases more effectively. The Cambridge, Mass.-based company’s miniature organ model enables researchers to measure tissue function and test potential new drug candidates. Draper and Pfizer will collaborate […]
Draper Labs plans human study of neural implants
Draper Laboratories is reportedly planning for the 1st human study of its neural implants for amputees to begin in late 2016 or early 2017. This follows Phase I findings that demonstrated Draper’s wireless electronics package for its implantable devices work effectively by achieving a high bandwidth communication capacity of 20 megabits per second, relaying information quickly and efficiently. […]
Draper’s tiny bio-MEM tech goes from a head-scratcher to a no-brainer
A bio-MEM drug delivery device developed by Draper Labs
Draper was into bio-MEMs before they were cool.
Micro-electro-mechanical systems, also known as MEMs, are tiny electrical machines that are common in consumer electronics and automotive sensors. Their presence in medical technology, however, is a much newer phenomenon.
In the last 10 years, as bio-MEMs technology has gone from being a head-scratcher to being a no-brainer, Jeffrey Borenstein has had a front-row seat.
Cambridge scientist creates bloodless blood test
In Iron Man 2, our hero Tony Stark manages to save the world from the military-industrial complex and create an entirely new chemical element, but still suffers through the inconvenient and mildly painful tribulation of numerous pin-prick blood tests a day.
Draper Laboratories, right down the street from Stark’s alma mater, MIT, has a solution. A scientist at the lab has successfully demonstrated an implantable nanosensor that changes color as chemical concentrations fluctuate in the bloodstream.
