Dermal Drug Delivery & Diagnostics Laboratory
Dr Keng Wooi Ng @ Newcastle University
An EPSRC-funded PhD studentship is now open for application. The successful candidate will join a multi-disciplinary team to develop a microneedle device to assess nerve function in diabetes.
The project will be led by Dr Roger Whittaker (Institute of Neuroscience), and co-supervised by Professor Anthony O’Neill (School of Engineering) and myself (School of Pharmacy).
Closing date: 5 June 2019.
Full details here.
We are now accepting applications for a funded PhD studentship in rapid disease diagnosis.
If you have read about our microneedle technology, and think that it is an area of research you would like to engage in and gain a PhD in the process, then please see the link below for eligibility and how to apply:
We have developed a microneedle array biosensor that can detect skin burns. To make the biosensor, we devised a nanocomposite material from carbon nanotubes and a biocompatible polymer, poly(lactic acid). We then shaped the microneedle array from the nanocomposite material. The microneedles that formed were about 870 μm long, 250 μm wide, and electroactive. This meant that the microneedle array could be inserted into the skin to detect certain analytes by electrochemistry. We verified this by using the microneedle array to detect vitamin C in solution. Interestingly, when we tested the microneedle array biosensor on skin burns and normal (non-burnt) skin, the skin specimens showed different electrochemical responses. This gives us the technological basis for a minimally invasive biosensing approach to detecting skin burns.
For more information, please see:
Skaria E, et al. (2019) Poly(lactic) acid/carbon nanotube composite microneedle arrays for dermal biosensing. Analytical Chemistry (epub ahead of print). doi: 10.1021/acs.analchem.8b04980