FlexMed No Needles. No Blood. No Pain.
Technology
- Flexmed has developed micro technology for membrane permeabilization to access interstitial fluid (ISF) transdermally...(thus eliminating) pain, blood or puncture of the skin.
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Membrane Permeabilization
The outermost layer of the epidermis, or stratum corneum consists of layers of corneocytes with continuous lipid bilayers that effectively contain fluid inside the body (details). The underlying principle that keeps body fluid in (and external fluids out) is repulsion of aqueous fluid by the lipids in the same way as oil repels water. Flexmed's proprietary microchip technology temporarily disrupts the continuity of the lipid bilayer with tiny electrical signals, rather like shaking oil and water, allowing fluids to flow through the open channel created across the stratum corneum. This breakthrough is the basis of Flexmed's technology, and the platform upon which a variety of products are being developed.
A phospholipid bilayer is a planar arrangement of lipid molecules having their hydrophobic tails aligned so as to form a barrier. -
Micro Fluidics
Resulting from in-depth studies of fluidic behavior in micro-channels, Flexmed has developed micro-fluidic technology to work in conjunction with membrane permeabilization micro-circuitry on a single chip to extract ISF and direct it through micro-channels to a sensing chamber for assay. -
Nano-Liter Assay Technologies
Flexmed has developed the capability to assay a sample of fluid of only a few nano-liters in volume with speed, accuracy and reliability. This is an advantage over other biosensors which typically require a thousand times more fluid than could be extracted transdermally. Glucose sensing for diabetes sufferers is the primary focus of assay at this time and other analytes are currently under development.