Professor Siddharth Krishnan, et al have created an implantable device that can be deployed to administer life-saving medicine in an emergency. The device can deliver glucagon or epinephrine.

The device, which is about the size of a quarter, contains a small drug reservoir made of a 3D-printed polymer. The reservoir is sealed with a special material known as a shape-memory alloy, which can be programmed to change its shape when heated. In this case, the researcher used a nickel-titanium alloy that is programmed to curl from a flat slab into a U-shape when heated to 40 degrees Celsius.

Like many other protein or peptide drugs, glucagon tends to break down quickly, so the liquid form can’t be stored long-term in the body. Instead, the MIT team created a powdered version of the drug, which remains stable for much longer and stays in the reservoir until released.

"One of the key features of this type of digital drug delivery system is that you can have it talk to sensors," Krishnan says. "In this case, the continuous glucose-monitoring technology that a lot of patients use is something that would be easy for these types of devices to interface with."

Excerpted from MIT News, 'Implantable device could save diabetes patients from dangerously low blood sugar’ https://news.mit.edu/2025/implantable-device-could-save-diabetes-patien…