Ear Drug Delivery

To address sensorineural hearing loss, investigators have been developing drug strategies and tissue regeneration approaches.  The challenge with both has been in finding a way to deliver those therapies in a controlled manner-which the Draper Laboratory (Cambridge, MA) and the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary have now addressed with a surgically-implanted microfluidics pump that is capable of metering out compounds or stems cells directly into the cochlea.  So far, this has only been done in animal studies, but it may be easier to do in the human ear than in the guinea pig’s.            MORE

Image Credit:   Draper Lab and Technology Review