Elizabeth Jitendran

Biomedical engineering

Hometown: Chandler, Arizona, United States

Graduation date: Spring 2024

FURI | Summer 2021

Drug Delivery in the Brain Using Iontophoresis through Microscale Pipettes to Modulate Single Cell Function

The need for controlled drug administration has become increasingly critical for the treatment of neurological diseases. Iontophoresis, a technique that uses current to move molecules, has been explored. The goals of this project are a) develop an iontophoretic method of administering drugs on command through microscale orifices, and b) characterize the transients in drug administration. We assessed the volume of fluorescein delivered over time as a function of different currents. Pipettes of different diameters with impedances from 1-15 M𝛀 were tested. Results suggest that pipettes with 0.5 μm diameter gave the most reliable and controlled administration of fluorescein.

Mentor: Arati Sridharan, Jitendran Muthuswamy