ABSTRACT
Traditional endoscopic and colonoscopic techniques are unable to access the small intestine for the delivery of biomarker probes and/or drugs. This is limiting the ability of medical researchers and practitioners to adequately explore the functional characteristics of the gastrointestinal tract [GIT], as well as the changes in the functional characteristics due to disease. This in turn is obstructing research for the development of newer biomarker probes and drugs for diagnosis and treatment of many conditions related to GIT. The advances in wireless capsule endoscopy have enabled medical researchers to view the inside of the GIT. However, these devices are not capable of delivering biomarker probes and drugs to affected areas of the gastrointestinal tract. The prototype drug delivery mechanism presented in this paper is aimed at delivering a suitable technology for adoption in an endoscopic capsule for the administration of biomarker probes anchor drugs to targeted areas in the GIT. The design proposed in this paper is based on thermally actuated shape memory alloys