University News for July 29, 2010

New compounds for testing needle-free injectors are expected to speed up improvements in the devices.

Needle-free injectors are used to administer pharmaceuticals and nutritional supplements to animals without the use of needles.

Researchers with the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences in partnership with AcuShot Inc. are assessing ballistic gels and commercial foams as mediums in which to analyze the dispersion patterns produced by the jet streams the devices use to administer the compounds.

Dr. Jason Morrison, an assistant professor in the Department of Biosystems Engineering, says the devices offer an alternative to needles.

Clip-Dr. Jason Morrison-University of Manitoba:
When you put a needle into an animal or person and you inject it, there's a ball of fluid at the end of the needle.

When you use a needle-free injector, the fluid is injected via a stream into the animal and instead of having just a small localized ball like you would with a needle, with the needle-free injector you get a more dispersed injection if you will.

Our project is about studying exactly where does the fluid go once it's below the skin.

What does that distribution of the stream look like when it's in tissue and how can we study it better.

What we want to be able to do is inject into let's say a ballistic gel or a foam and through the use of a high speed camera capture how does it look and what kind of substance should we be injecting into to best simulate the animal being injected into and the tissues being injected into.

Dr. Jason Morrison hopes the research will assist manufacturers in making improvements that will allow the devices to be used to administer a broader range of medications and supplements.

For UniversityNews.Org, I'm Bruce Cochrane.

*University News is a presentation of the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Agricultural & Food Sciences