High-Yield Electrospinning System for Drug Delivery Patches

The School of Clinical Dentistry at Sheffield has developed an innovative microfiber-based mucoadhesive oral matrix technology for delivering drugs and advanced therapeutics directly to the oral mucosa. The technology has been clinically evaluated in human studies and offers high patient acceptability. The team has successfully incorporated various compounds including lipophilic molecules, peptides, and proteins while maintaining high loading efficiency, rapid release profiles, and functional activity retention. The patches are manufactured using electrospinning, a voltage-driven technique that uses electrostatic forces to create continuous micro- and nanofibers. This method produces flexible patches that conform to wet, curved, and dynamic surfaces, with high surface-to-volume ratios that enable efficient drug loading and sustained mucoadhesive interactions for prolonged tissue residence. The team has recently secured a UKRI Engineering Biology Mission Award to adapt this technology for mRNA vaccine delivery applications and now requires a high-yield electrospinning system capable of scaling production to meet the demands of this new therapeutic application.