Nanofiber Melts for Swallow-specific Quality of Life in Older Age

Transformative Technology funding awarded in 2018/19

The focus of this project is innovative engineering for health and the treatment of age related health conditions. Presbyphagia is a condition of primary aging and affects 40% of otherwise healthy people over 60 years of age. Hence, swallowing often comprises a major obstacle for oral medicines administration to older people. The availability of a robust in vitro oral cavity model representing different levels of swallowing functionality will enable the effective screening of patient-friendly orally administered medicine. The further investigation of promising medicine forms in human panel studies has potential impact for the generation of evidence based data on easy- to swallow formulations, and hence optimised therapeutic outcome and patient adherence.

The objectives for this study are:

• To assess the end-user perception of nanofibers as a medicine platform in terms of ease of swallowing and sensory acceptability
• To investigate the correlation between the human panel study and a predictive oral cavity model.