The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, determined microneedles can facilitate transdermal delivery of clinically-relevant doses of a drug that normally cannot pass through the skin, the university said Monday in a news release.

It is the first peer-reviewed study of its kind using human subjects.

"This study represents an important landmark in the development of microneedles into drug delivery devices suitable for use in clinical medicine," said Mark Prausnitz, a professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology, who participated in the research effort. "This method may be useful for a broad range of drugs that cannot normally be delivered without a hypodermic needle."

Researchers said microneedles work by painlessly punching a series of microscopic holes in the outer layer of skin known as the stratum corneum.