Neglect needles—this 3D printed patch simply launched with critical backing. Stanford College professor and Carbon co-founder Dr. Joseph DeSimone has formally launched PinPrint, a brand new startup creating 3D printed microneedle patches that ship medication and vaccines by way of the pores and skin—no syringe required. Constructed on analysis from Stanford, the College of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, and Carbon, PinPrint goals to shake up how therapies are given throughout drugs and cosmetics.
That imaginative and prescient is now getting a lift from Continuity Biosciences. The Florida-based drug supply firm is backing the launch with a brand new funding, giving it entry to a non-invasive methodology for delivering therapies, this time by way of the pores and skin as a substitute of implants. Till now, Continuity has targeted on long-term implantable drug methods developed with researchers in Houston. With PinPrint, it’s stepping right into a next-generation needle-free strategy.
Joseph DeSimone, Founding father of Carbon and PinPrint. Picture courtesy of Stanford College.
PinPrint was based round a expertise developed by DeSimone, a professor of chemical engineering and radiology at Stanford. He’s additionally the co-founder and present board member of Carbon, the place he served as CEO from 2013 to 2019. His workforce addressed a crucial problem in 3D printing—resin over-curing in tiny areas—by creating the injection Steady Liquid Interface Manufacturing (iCLIP) methodology. This innovation allows the creation of ultra-precise microneedles and microfluidic channels important for superior medical gadgets.
The corporate’s lead product is a microneedle patch designed to ship medication immediately into the pores and skin and not using a syringe, providing a easy, pain-free different. As highlighted in a 2025 Stanford Journal profile, DeSimone’s newest work focuses on microneedle patches that not solely ship vaccines extra successfully, but additionally simplify storage and self-administration. By focusing on the dermis, the place immune cells are concentrated, these patches might make vaccines stronger, simpler to distribute, and fewer depending on cold-chain logistics.
Past drug supply, the workforce behind PinPrint sees potential in utilizing the identical microneedle platforms for diagnostics. By amassing interstitial fluid—a transparent liquid that surrounds cells within the physique—the patches might someday monitor issues like glucose ranges or immune responses, all with out breaking the pores and skin. These sorts of capabilities trace at a future the place healthcare isn’t solely “much less invasive but additionally extra steady and personalised.”
The broader implications of PinPrint’s work and Continuity Biosciences’ enlargement into non-invasive remedy platforms level to a rising shift in how medication and information may transfer by way of the physique. As a substitute of counting on chilly storage, needles, or physician visits, the following wave of medication might be delivered like a sticker: mainly easy, scalable, and exactly engineered by way of 3D printing, and most significantly, to sufferers: pain-free.
This concept traces up with a broad imaginative and prescient shared by futurists and longevity consultants like doctor and entrepreneur Peter H. Diamandis, founder and chairman of the XPRIZE Basis. In a current Future Medication weblog submit, Diamandis argued that the approaching decade might convey radical adjustments in healthcare, powered by AI and smarter supply methods. He advises staying wholesome lengthy sufficient to learn from what’s coming.
3D printing microneedles with advanced geometries. Picture courtesy of Stanford College.
“We people have 100 to 1,000 instances extra immune cells within the dermis of our pores and skin than we do in our muscle,” DeSimone stated in his Stanford Journal interview. “When you might successfully goal this center layer of pores and skin, he says the advantages would vary from requiring a fraction of the standard dose—essential in epidemics, just like the current mpox outbreak, so there’s sufficient to go round—to engaging needlephobes to get vaccinated. The biggest producer of vaccines has advised me the most important inhibitor for getting a seasonal vaccine trifecta of influenzas, COVID, and RSV is that individuals hate needles.”
DeSimone’s work has formed each the chemistry lab and the manufacturing facility ground. As a professor at UNC, he helped pioneer safer, greener applied sciences, from an eco-friendly option to make Teflon to a bioabsorbable coronary heart stent. Nevertheless, it was on this planet of 3D printing that DeSimone made his largest mark. In 2013, he co-founded Carbon, the corporate behind the high-speed resin printing course of CLIP. Carbon helped flip 3D printing into a real manufacturing software, most famously by way of its ongoing partnership with Adidas, which in 2025 launched a brand new absolutely 3D printed shoe. Now with PinPrint, DeSimone is bringing that very same mixture of science and business influence to healthcare.
The r2rCLIP setup within the DeSimone lab runs from proper to left. The printing happens within the space beneath the pink piece. Picture courtesy of DeSimone Analysis Group.
That transfer into drugs now has the backing of Continuity Biosciences. The corporate, which often works on implanted drug methods for persistent sicknesses, sees this as a option to strive one thing new— delivering therapies by way of the pores and skin, with out needles.
“This funding permits us to develop from implanted nanofluidic methods to a non-implanted microfluidic platform,” stated Ramakrishna Venugopalan, Co-Founder and CEO of Continuity Biosciences. “It opens the door for simpler supply of dermatologic, aesthetic, and beauty brokers immediately into the dermis.”
As a part of the settlement, Venugopalan will be part of PinPrint’s board. PinPrint’s CEO, Renee Ryan, stated his management and expertise in drug supply will “be instrumental, as we redefine what’s doable in drug and vaccine supply.”
Continuity, which additionally has operations in Houston, has targeted on long-term drug supply for persistent illnesses. PinPrint brings a special approach: non-invasive, personalised patches for issues like vaccines, dermatology, and doubtlessly even magnificence therapies. Each firms say the partnership goals to make therapies simpler, extra exact, and extra snug for sufferers.
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