Customizable drug tablets with constant release profiles via 3D printing technology.

Medicine should ideally be personalized as each individual has his/her own unique biological, physical, and medical dispositions. Medicine can be personalized by customizing drug tablets with the specific drug dosages, release durations, and combinations of multiple drugs. This study presents a method for fabricating drug tablets with customizable dosages, durations, and combinations of multiple drugs by using the 3D printing technology. The method focuses on fabricating customizable drug tablets with a very simple structure for delivering the constant release profile due to its importance in treatment (i.e., the drug may produce side effects if too much is released andmay not have therapeutic value is too little is released). The method is simple: it involves first printing a template using the 3D printer and fabricating the drug tablet via the template. The tablets are customized by varying the amount of excipient used, the height of the tablet, and the numberand amount of drugs used. Three different common drugs (i.e., paracetamol, phenylephrine HCl and diphenhydramine HCl) and FDA-approved excipients are studied. The simplicity of the structure of the tablet and method via templating allows the fabrication of these fully customizable drug tablets to be easily performed, low-cost, efficient, and safe for consumption. These features enable the customizable tablets to be made widely accessible to the public; hence, the concept of personalized medicine can be realized.

On-demand fully customizable drug tablets via 3D printing technology for personalized medicine.

Personalized medicine should ideally be prescribed to every individual because of the unique characteristics (e.g., biological, physical, and medical) of each individual. It is, however, challenging to provide personalized medicine for the mass population of specific individuals effectively and efficiently. This manuscript describes a method of fabricating fully customizable drug tablets for personalized medicine by the 3D printing technology. This method involves the versatile fabrication of the tablets via the specifically designed 3D printed molds of different shapes and sizes, and an intuitive 1-dimensional release of drug that relates the shape of the drug-containing matrix to the release profile. The customization includes all the aspects of varying dosage, duration, release profiles, and combination of multiple drugs. In particular, it has previously been technically difficult to devise a single platform that fabricates carriers that release drug with any desired type of release profiles. This method of fabricating fully customizable tablets is simple, inexpensive, and efficient. Detailed selection and investigation of the materials ensured that the tablet and the method of fabrication are safe (e.g., biocompatible, FDA-approved ingredients used) and other desirable features (e.g., sustained release and high dosage) are achieved. These desirable characteristics of the method thus allow fully customizable drug tablets to be fabricated efficiently on the spot after the diagnosis of individual patients; at the same time, the method can be made widely accessible to the mass population. Hence, the concept of personalized medicine can truly be realized.

The Pathway to Intelligence: Using Stimuli-Responsive Materials as Building Blocks for Constructing Smart and Functional Systems.

Systems that are intelligent have the ability to sense their surroundings, analyze, and respond accordingly. In nature, many biological systems are considered intelligent (e.g., humans, animals, and cells). For man-made systems, artificial intelligence is achieved by massively sophisticated electronic machines (e.g., computers and robots operated by advanced algorithms). On the other hand, freestanding materials (i.e., not tethered to a power supply) are usually passive and static. Hence, herein, the question is asked: can materials be fabricated so that they are intelligent? One promising approach is to use stimuli-responsive materials; these "smart" materials use the energy supplied by a stimulus available from the surrounding for performing a corresponding action. After decades of research, many interesting stimuli-responsive materials that can sense and perform smart functions have been developed. Classes of functions discussed include practical functions (e.g., targeting and motion), regulatory functions (e.g., self-regulation and amplification), and analytical processing functions (e.g., memory and computing). The pathway toward creating truly intelligent materials can involve incorporating a combination of these different types of functions into a single integrated system by using stimuli-responsive materials as the basic building blocks.