The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been mired in logistical challenges. Millions of doses have gone to waste, some spoiling after being left unrefrigerated for too long, some expiring before they could physically get to those in need. Most of the vaccines need to be kept at incredibly low temperatures, requiring a cold chain for distribution, a tricky feat when the vaccine needs to access remote areas or regions without electricity. Even with the vaccines in place, you still need people to put those shots in arms, and to come back and do it all again for the second dose.
Nicole Steinmetz, a professor of nanoengineering and the director of the Center for Nano ImmunoEngineering at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), imagines another way: “thermally stable” vaccines that don’t need to be transported in freezers, and which could come in a microneedle patch—so that “you could ship it to people’s homes, and they can self-administer just like a bandaid,” she says—or in one-dose implants, eliminating the need to set up a second appointment… Continue reading.