Your skin is superb at keeping things out, which is great until a medicine needs to get in. A team at Georgia Tech has designed a fix that looks, under a microscope, like a tiny spiky ball, and on November 4, 2026 the university described a new version built to disappear after use.
A cream-friendly alternative to patches
Mark Prausnitz, a Regents’ Professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, has spent years working on ways to move drugs through the skin’s outer barrier. His earlier work centered on microneedle patches, which help drugs penetrate but suit only small areas. Conditions such as eczema and psoriasis can spread across broad or irregular parts of the body, where patches are impractical.
His answer is the STAR particle: a microscopic particle with tiny needles projecting from it like the points of a star. “Like the ball and chain of medieval times, with all those spikes sticking out of the ball,” Prausnitz said in the university’s release. “Or like a porcupine.”
The particles are mixed into a cream or gel. Rubbing it on makes them roll and slide, poking microscopic openings in the skin’s outer layer so the medicine in the cream can be absorbed over time.
From ceramic to biodegradable
The release says earlier STAR particles were made of titania, a material considered safe but not biodegradable. In one small human study, those ceramic particles helped a topical anesthetic work faster and reduce sensation more than the anesthetic alone. Separate tolerability tests found mild redness that faded, and participants described tingling rather than pain.
No one has found evidence of harm from the earlier particles, but Prausnitz wondered about their fate afterward: in an eye, on a child, or in the environment. Those questions drove the redesign.
The new particles use three materials that break down after use. One is the biodegradable plastic used in dissolvable stitches, which can be made from corn. Another is based on cellulose, a major component of plants. The third is an additive often used in candy and other foods. According to the release, all three produced the tiny openings needed for compounds to pass through the skin.
What the lab tests showed
The strongest result involved copper tripeptide-1, a skincare ingredient. Prausnitz also reported good results with methotrexate, used for psoriasis, and tacrolimus, used for eczema. With STAR particles, nearly 37 times as much of a compound entered the skin as without them.
The release is careful about what that number means: it does not mean the drug was 37 times more effective. The study measured drug delivery into the skin, not treatment outcomes, and the biodegradable particles have not yet been tested in people. The work was published in Advanced Healthcare Materials.
What it means
Prausnitz said some drugs that could help skin disease have been “thrown in the trash or stuck on the shelf” because of side effects when they circulate through the whole body. Delivering them directly to the skin could reduce those effects. He has also suggested STAR particles might one day carry anti-aging treatments without injections or harsher procedures, though cosmetic uses were not evaluated in this study.
For patients, the appeal is familiarity. “Users don’t really know or care that STAR particles are in there,” Prausnitz said. Rub it on, feel a little tingle.
Prausnitz and Dr. Andrew Tadros are inventors of the technology and have ownership interests in Aldena Therapeutics and Microstar Biotech, which are developing related technologies. Georgia Tech states those interests are disclosed and managed.
Conclusion
This is early-stage research, and human tests of the biodegradable version still lie ahead. But swapping a durable material for ones that dissolve answers a practical question regulators and patients are likely to ask, and it keeps the idea of an everyday lotion that opens its own doorway into the skin alive.