Microneedles are a relatively simple, minimally invasive and painless approach to deliver drugs across the skin. However, there remain limitations with this approach because of the materials most commonly utilized for such systems. Silk protein, with tunable and biocompatibility properties, is a useful biomaterial to overcome the current limitations with microneedles. Silk devices preserve drug activity, offer superior mechanical properties and biocompatibility, can be tuned for biodegradability, and can be processed under aqueous, benign conditions. In the present work, we report the fabrication of dense microneedle arrays from silk with different drug release kinetics. The mechanical properties of the microneedle patches are tuned by post-fabrication treatments or by loading the needles with silk microparticles to increase capacity and mechanical strength. Drug release is further enhanced by the encapsulation of the drugs in the silk matrix and coating with a thin dissolvable drug layer. The microneedles are used on human cadaver skin and drugs were delivered successfully. The various attributes demonstrated suggest that silk-based microneedle devices can provide significant benefit as a platform material for transdermal drug delivery.

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Trials with run-in phases provided similar estimates for medication efficacy and safety compared to trials without run-in phases. Because run-in phases are costly and time-consuming, these results call their utility into question for clinical trials of short duration.

Sutureless anastomosis devices are designed to reduce surgical time and difficulty, which may lead to quicker and less invasive cardiovascular anastomosis. The implant utilizes a barb-and-seat compression fitting composed of one male and two female components. The implant body is resorbable and capable of eluting heparin. Custom robotic deposition equipment was designed in order to fabricate the implants from a self-curing silk solution. Curing did not require deleterious processing steps but devices demonstrated high crush resistance, retention strength, and leak resistance. Radial crush resistance is in the range of metal vascular implants. Insertion force and retention strength of the anastomosis was dependent on fit sizing of the male and female components and subsequent vessel wall compression. Anastomotic burst strength was dependent on the amount of vessel wall compression, and capable of maintaining higher than physiological pressures. In initial screening using a porcine implant, the devices remained intact for 28 days (the length of study). Histological sections revealed cellular infiltration within the laminar structure of the male component, as well as at the interface between the male and female components. Initial degradation and absorption of the implant wall were observed. The speed per anastomosis using this new device was much faster than current systems, providing significant clinical improvement.