FURI | Summer 2021

Drug Delivery in the Brain Using Iontophoresis through Microscale Pipettes to Modulate Single Cell Function

Health icon, disabled. A red heart with a cardiac rhythm running through it.

The need for controlled drug administration has become increasingly critical for the treatment of
neurological diseases. Iontophoresis, a technique that uses current to move molecules, has
been explored. The goals of this project are a) develop an iontophoretic method of administering
drugs on command through microscale orifices, and b) characterize the transients in drug
administration. We assessed the volume of fluorescein delivered over time as a function of
different currents. Pipettes of different diameters with impedances from 1-15 M𝛀 were tested.
Results suggest that pipettes with 0.5 μm diameter gave the most reliable and controlled
administration of fluorescein.

Student researcher

Elizabeth Jitendran

Biomedical engineering

Hometown: Chandler, Arizona, United States

Graduation date: Spring 2024