Monodisperse Silk Emulsions And Microspheres

Tech ID: 19590 / UC Case 2010-021-0

Brief Description

Emulsions are commonly used in food products, cosmetics, paint, etc. Polymer microspheres have applications in, for example, drug delivery and tissue engineering. A challenge in creating polymer microspheres and emulsions is minimizing the polydispersity of the particles. The particles tend to have inconsistent size, shape and mass distribution.

Silk is often used commercially as an emulsion, and has been demonstrated to be an extremely effective polymer for drug delivery. Microfluidic devices that produce microsphere have been demonstrated in the past. However, it has been difficult to produce particles with a consistent size and shape known as monodisperse particles.

Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a microfluidic methodology for producing monodisperse silk microspheres. The unique chemistry and method enables production of exact microsphere diameter and percent of crystallinity. Both the microsphere and crystallinity can be precisely adjusted which can be used in for a variety of applications. It is particularly useful to vary drug release characteristics in a drug delivery system.

Suggested uses

- Drug Delivery
- Tissue Engineering
- Cosmetics, food additives, and emulsions

Advantages


- Exact microsphere diameter and percent of crystallinity
- Tunable particle size and tunable crystallinity
- Particle size homogeneity

Inventors

  • Breslauer, David N.
  • Lee, Luke P.

Other Information

Categorized As

Related cases

2010-021-0

Contact

Curt Theisen / curt@berkeley.edu / tel: View Phone Number. Please reference Tech ID #19590.

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