FEA-Guided Co-Design of Bubble Microneedles: Controlled Tip Separation for Rapid Transdermal and Sublingual Delivery

The study introduces a finite element analysis (FEA)-guided co-design framework for developing separable bubble microneedles (BMNs) that optimize geometry and cavity parameters for controlled tip separation and robust insertion. The research demonstrated that minoxidil sulfate-loaded BMNs (MXS-BMNs) and insulin-loaded BMNs (INS-BMNs) achieved effective transdermal and sublingual delivery, respectively. MXS-BMNs showed a sevenfold increase in minoxidil permeation compared to topical gel and accelerated hair regrowth in mice, while INS-BMNs provided rapid glucose reduction in diabetic rats. The FEA predictions closely matched experimental results, confirming the framework's efficacy in reducing empirical iteration and expediting BMN development for rapid drug delivery.