Currently, the way medicines like insulin and GLP-1s (Wegovy, Ozempic) enter the bloodstream is through subcutaneous injections. Users have to inject themselves, sometimes daily. However, new research from Georgia Tech might be changing the way these types of drugs are administered, allowing users to simply take a pill instead.

Mark Prausnitz, PhD, Regents Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Georgia Tech, runs a laboratory at the school that develops new technologies to get drugs where they need to go in the body. A recent PhD candidate, Joshua Palacios, came with a fellowship from the National Science Foundation, which gave flexibility to go in a new direction, says Prausnitz. “It got us thinking, our creative juices flowing,” he says.

The researchers used insulin as a

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