Current hearing-loss treatments deliver drugs to the middle ear by requiring repeat injections. A device from The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, sends precise, automated, and timed quantities of one or more drugs directly into the fluid of the inner ear.

A reciprocating delivery cycle keeps the volume of inner ear fluid constant while mixing in the drug. The Draper method also eliminates the toxic side effects associated with systemic delivery, as well as the frequent office visits required for other local-delivery approaches.

Draper is collaborating on an NIH-funded project with researchers at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. The micropump, driven by a series of custom-designed microactuators, enables on-board sample acquisition from the cochlea for precise pharmacokinetic studies and measurements of drug concentration.

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