[dosyrotsbop]

By Kerry Mcqueeney: 10:44 GMT, 26 May 2012

You won't feel a prick any longer: Scientists invent needleless injections with Star Trek-style immunisation device

Medicine could be delivered via a high-speed pressure jet through the skin in a new needleless method developed by scientists
which could spell the end of painful injections. The Star Trek-style device, unveiled by scientists yesterday, can be programmed
to deliver a range of doses to varying skin depths.

The breakthrough will be a welcome relief for those with phobias of needles who may avoid immunisation because of their fears.



In the hit science fiction series Star Trek, the space ship's medical officer Leonard 'Bones' McCoy would treat injuries with a
needleless device.

Researchers now think they have come up with a similar system which produces a high-velocity jet of drugs to penetrate the skin.
The device is said to be a major improvement on some fledgling jet-injection systems that have been developed. The researchers
say that among other benefits, the technology may drastically cut the number of accidents among doctors and nurses who
accidentally prick themselves with needles.

A needleless device may also help improve compliance among patients who might otherwise avoid the discomfort of regularly injecting
themselves with drugs such as insulin.

Now an MIT team, led by Professor Ian Hunter has engineered a jet-injection system that delivers a range of doses to variable depths
in a highly controlled manner. The design is built around a mechanism called a Lorentz-force actuator - a small, powerful magnet
surrounded by a coil of wire that's attached to a piston inside a drug ampoule.

When current is applied, it interacts with the magnetic field to produce a force that pushes the piston forward, ejecting the drug at
very high pressure and velocity (almost the speed of sound in air) out through the ampoule's nozzle - an opening as wide as a
mosquito's proboscis.