Leon Bellan, Vanderbilt School of Engineering
Leon Bellan, an associate professor, and his team at the Vanderbilt School of Engineering have developed a cooling-triggered device that could enable patients to receive pain-relief drugs safely.
The professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering recently published a paper titled ‘Cooling-Triggered Release of Celecoxib from Implantable Alginate-Soluplus Composite Devices,’ on the development in the ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering.
Bellan and the team developed the device to address the shortcomings of administering non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs through local delivery, which allows patients to control when the drugs are administered.
The delivery approaches include external stimulus-triggered release from an implanted depot and a device that releases medication at a controlled rate in the body, which often requires heat, light, and ultrasound.
The delivery system developed by the professor and his team will allow implantation at a reduced temperature.
Bellan noted, “Going forward, we envision cooling being used more broadly as an external stimulus for targeted, patient-controlled delivery of drugs for pain relief or to treat other conditions.”
