Background
In the realm of drug delivery and biomedical therapies, advanced formulations are essential for improving treatment efficacy, minimizing systemic toxicity, and achieving precise therapeutic targeting. Technologies capable of encapsulating and preserving the bioactivity of small molecules, proteins, and live cells are particularly critical for emerging treatments in oncology, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine. Despite considerable progress, many current encapsulation techniques are ill-suited for heat-sensitive compounds or multi-agent therapies, limiting their clinical utility and impacting patient outcomes.
Conventional fabrication methods such as solvent displacement and emulsion evaporation often involve intense mechanical stress, broad particle size distributions, and harsh conditions that degrade fragile biologics. These approaches struggle to maintain dosing consistency, complicate scale-up, and pose challenges for reproducible drug release profiles. As the demand grows for customizable, biocompatible delivery systems, new technologies are needed that enable gentle, precise, and reproducible encapsulation processes compatible with a wide range of therapeutic agents.
Technology overview
This technology leverages a pneumatic pressure-assisted 3D printing system to fabricate polymeric micro- and nanoparticles via a water-in-oil-in-water or oil-in-water emulsion process. Therapeutic agents and biocompatible polymers are dispersed into this emulsion and extruded through a nozzle, generating uniform droplets under low shear stress. Solvent evaporation drives polymer precipitation, encapsulating the therapeutic payload within each particle. The process concludes with ultracentrifugation to remove unencapsulated material, yielding monodisperse particles with precise cargo loading.
Unlike conventional methods that rely on homogenization or sonication, this system maintains the structural integrity of heat-sensitive compounds and live cells by utilizing controlled extrusion forces. The integration of extrusion-based 3D printing with emulsion evaporation represents a novel approach that enables tunable particle synthesis without compromising drug viability. Compatible with a variety of polymers and therapeutics, the platform facilitates the design of customized multi-agent formulations for applications including cancer therapeutics, gene delivery, and vaccine development.
Benefits
- Preserves the bioactivity of heat-sensitive drugs and biologics through gentle processing conditions
- Enables precise control over particle size and morphology for consistent drug release
- Supports encapsulation of diverse therapeutic agents, including live cells and proteins
- Compatible with multi-agent delivery strategies for combinatorial therapy
- Scalable and reproducible fabrication method suited for clinical translation
Applications
- Cancer therapeutics
- Protein and gene delivery
- Vaccine formulation
- Live cell therapies
- Biodegradable polymer drug carriers
Opportunity
- Addresses critical limitations in traditional encapsulation methods
- Enables customizable particle design for a broad range of therapeutic agents
- Offers a versatile platform for biopharmaceutical companies seeking advanced delivery solutions
- Available for licensing to support commercialization in oncology, immunotherapy, and regenerative medicine markets
