Editing Draper Laboratory (section)

===Medical systems===
[[File:Microfluidics.jpg|thumb|upright|Microfluidic devices have the potential for implantation in humans to deliver corrective therapies.]]
In 2009, Draper collaborated with the [[Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary]] to develop an implantable drug-delivery device, which "merges aspects of [[microelectromechanical systems]], or MEMS, with microfluidics, which enables the precise control of fluids on very small scales". The device is a "flexible, fluid-filled machine", which uses tubes that expand and contract to promote fluid flow through channels with a defined rhythm, driven by a micro-scale pump, which adapts to environmental input. The system, funded by the [[National Institutes of Health]], may treat hearing loss by delivering "tiny amounts of a liquid drug to a very delicate region of the ear, the implant will allow sensory cells to regrow, ultimately restoring the patient's hearing".<ref name = "MEM">
{{cite journal | last = Borenstein | first = Jeffrey T. | title = Flexible Microsystems Deliver Drugs Through the Ear—A MEMS-based microfluidic implant could open up many difficult-to-treat diseases to drug therapy | journal = IEEE Spectrum | date = 30 October 2009 | url = https://spectrum.ieee.org/flexible-microsystems-deliver-drugs-through-the-ear | access-date = 2013-12-23}}</ref>

{{As of|2010}}, Heather Clark of Draper Laboratory was developing a method to measure blood glucose concentration without finger-pricking. The method uses a nano-sensor, like a miniature tattoo, just several millimeters across, that patients apply to the skin. The sensor uses near-infrared or visible light ranges to determine glucose concentrations. Normally to regulate their blood glucose levels, [[diabetics]] must measure their blood glucose several times a day by taking a drop of blood obtained by a pinprick and inserting the sample into a machine that can measure glucose level. The nano-sensor approach would supplant this process.<ref name = "Blood">
{{cite web | last = Kranz | first = Rebecca  |author2=Gwosdow, Andrea | title = Honey I Shrunk the...Sensor? | work = What a Year | publisher = Massachusetts Society for Medical Research| date = September 2009 | url = http://www.whatayear.org/09_09.html | access-date = 2013-12-24 }}</ref>