Research & Discovery

October 23, 2024 | Matt Engelhardt

Gates Foundation Bolsters Thanh Nguyen’s Vaccine Research

UConn biomedical engineer is ramping up efforts to develop microneedle patches capable of delivering multiple vaccines at once.

NIH R01 Collection

UConn leaders and department heads gather at the Innovation Partnership Building to celebrate NIH R01 grant recipients. Pictured: Vice President for Research, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Pamir Alpay, Biomedical Engineering Department Head Syam Nukaparavu, College of Engineering Dean JC Zhao, Biomedical Engineering Professor Thanh Nguyen, Biomedical Engineering Professor Yupeng Chang, Mechanical Engineering Department Head Horea Ilies, and Director of the Center for Clean Energy Engineering Xiao-Dong Zhou.

UConn associate Professor Thanh Nguyen’s microneedle patch technology is helping to eradicate serious diseases throughout the world. He has a significant backer in his groundbreaking research: The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has awarded a series of grants totaling $6.6 million.

Nguyen, an associate professor in the College of Engineering’s School of Mechanical, Aerospace, and Manufacturing Engineering, is one of UConn’s leading research fundraisers. His work has garnered significant awards from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and now the Gates Foundation.

The funding supports Nguyen’s research and innovation on a microneedle array patch capable of delivering multiple human vaccines at once. The Gates Foundation initially awarded $2 million. Following early success on the project, funding increased by $600,000 to support the development of a scale-up manufacturing technology capable of producing many patches per day on an industrial scale. His microneedle method is far less painful than traditional syringe delivery, absorbing the vaccines through the skin as opposed to injecting directly into the body.

Funding has more than doubled since the initial award. In late September, the Gates Foundation awarded Nguyen another $4 million to take the patch a step farther as a pentavalent and Polio vaccine that addresses six diseases or viruses at once: diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, HIV, Hepatitis B, and especially, Polio.

Once almost eradicated, Polio continues to affect populations in developing countries, with the most cases reported in Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan. Nguyen hopes the microneedle patch will make new progress in the effort to eliminate the threat of polio once and for all.

Now with $6.6 million in Gates Foundation funding, Nguyen and his laboratory can build up productivity. He is partnering with LTS, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of microneedle systems, to significantly scale up production on the patches. Concurrently, he is expanding the size of the laboratory, creating opportunities with UConn students to explore vaccine science.

The award also surpasses a milestone in fundraising for Nguyen and UConn. Through the Gates Foundation, National Institutes of Health (NIH), USDA, and others, Nguyen has now earned more than $25 million in research awards.

“That kind of funding doesn’t come naturally,” says Nguyen. “It comes from the recognition of the high impact of the research and the lab’s success in publishing articles. It is a testament to the importance of what we are doing.”

Nguyen’s research expands on other research into microneedle patch capabilities. Also in late September of 2024, he received an NIH RO1 grant to test the effectiveness of anti-HIV patches in small and large mammals, with the eventual goal of vaccinating infant humans who breastfeed from infected mothers.

Research is not limited to vaccine delivery. Nguyen won a second RO1 grant for a project investigating acceleration of healing defects to the largest bones in the body, such as the femur and tibia. The team is working to minimize the dangers of cell stimulation through the application of biomaterials as an electrically active scaffold over a defect.