In the past century, numerous drugs have been developed and have helped us to get rid of various diseases. By the mature development of micro/nano technologies, precise, predictable, and well-controlled instruments and tools for drug testing and delivery have been suggested. Efficient drug development and effective drug delivery can benefit the quality of human lives. This book presents advances in drug testing and drug delivery. It covers a board spectrum of topics and state of the art research in this field. As such, the book is divided into three parts, comprised of nine chapters. The first part (Chapter One) introduces recent developments of drug testing technologies targeting for subjects who suffer from drug abuse and addiction. Specimens of oral fluid and hair are the focuses of this discussion. The second part (Chapters Four through Six) includes the advanced technologies for drug testing. In the development of a new drug, the process is lengthy and costly. There are a large amount of drug tests on living cell culture involved. Therefore, in order to decrease the development time and increase the prediction precision of the drug effectiveness, advanced technologies of 3D cell culture and microfluidics for drug testing are introduced. The third part (Chapters Seven to Nine) presents the novel drug delivery systems. Compared to conventional oral and parenteral administration, microneedle patches and polymer delivery carriers are novel drug delivery approaches. In-depth discussions of different delivery systems are included to achieve promising therapeutic effects. These novel and ongoing techniques provide new insights and possibilities for drug testing and drug delivery. The reader will gain a unique perspective on the challenges and emerging opportunities in this exciting field.
Dr. Kin Fong Lei received his B.S. from National Tsing-Hua University, Taiwan in 1998. He obtained his M.Phil. and Ph.D. from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong in 2000 and 2005, respectively. In 2000, he was invited as a visiting research fellow at Budapest University of Technology and Economics, Hungary. In 2006, he was working at University of Western Ontario, Canada as a postdoctoral research fellow. From 2007 to 2010, he was a Lecturer at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. He joined Chang Gung University, Taiwan as an Assistant Professor in 2010 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014. Dr. Lei has published over 100 academic papers and has been invited to write 5 book chapters. He is a member of IEEE and ASME. His current research interests include microfluidic devices/systems, electrochemical bio-sensing, rapid diagnostics, and cancer signaling pathways.
