{"id":206817,"date":"2023-11-24T09:49:06","date_gmt":"2023-11-24T14:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=206817"},"modified":"2023-11-24T09:49:06","modified_gmt":"2023-11-24T14:49:06","slug":"nguyen-lab-explores-benefits-of-using-microneedle-arrays-for-vaccine-delivery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2023\/11\/nguyen-lab-explores-benefits-of-using-microneedle-arrays-for-vaccine-delivery\/","title":{"rendered":"Nguyen Lab Explores Benefits of Using Microneedle Arrays for Vaccine Delivery"},"content":{"rendered":"

In rural areas, especially in developing countries, the long distance to a medical facility may hinder a population from getting vaccinations, and especially booster doses.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Vaccines\u2014for everything from influenza to COVID-19 to pneumococcal diseases\u2014are stored at a low temperature for\u202fstability and\u202fare typically administrated through a\u202fhypodermic\u202fneedle and syringe from a health care professional.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat if we were able to mail people vaccines that don\u2019t need refrigeration and they could apply them to\u202ftheir own skin\u202flike a bandage?\u201d asked Thanh Nguyen, associate professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering\u202fat the University of Connecticut.\u202f\u201cAnd what if we could easily vaccinate people\u2014once\u2014where they\u202fwouldn\u2019t\u202fneed a booster? We could\u202fpotentially\u202feradicate polio, measles, rubella, and COVID-19.\u201d<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The answer, Nguyen believes, is administrating vaccines through a\u202fprogrammable\u202fmicroneedle array patch with a\u202fnovel\u202fprocess he is\u202f<\/span>developing at\u202fhis lab at UConn<\/span><\/a>.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Thanh<\/a>
Thanh Nguyen, center, is pictured here with members of his 2022-23 lab.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By adhering a\u202fnearly painless, 1-centimeter-square\u202fbiodegradable\u202fpatch to the skin, a person can receive a\u202fpreprogrammed delivery\u202fof highly-concentrated vaccines in powder form\u2014over months\u2014and\u202feliminate\u202fthe need for boosters.\u202f\u201cThe primary argument is that getting vaccines and boosters is a pain,\u201d Nguyen said. \u201cYou\u202fhave to\u202fgo back two or three times to get these shots. With the microneedle platform, you put it on once, and\u202fit\u2019s\u202fdone. You have your\u202fvaccine\u202fand you have your boosters. You\u202fdon\u2019t\u202fhave to go back to the doctor or hospital.\u201d<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This month, UConn\u2019s Institute of Materials Science received a\u202fthree-year\u202fgrant from the <\/span>Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation<\/span><\/a> to support Nguyen\u2019s research on \u201cSingle-Administration Self-boosting Microneedle Platform for Vaccines and Therapeutics.\u201d The project’s\u202fgoal\u202fis to develop a low-cost manufacturing process.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The\u202f<\/span>Nguyen Research Group<\/span><\/a>\u202fhas already been working to thermally-stabilize vaccines and other therapeutics so they can stay inside the skin for\u202fa long period. In 2020,\u202f<\/span>Nature Biomedical Engineering<\/span><\/i>\u202f<\/span>published a study<\/span><\/a>\u202fby Nguyen and his colleagues\u202freporting that, in rats, microneedles loaded with a clinically available vaccine (Prevnar-13) against a bacterium\u202fprovided\u202fsimilar immune protection\u202fas\u202fmultiple bolus injections.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to show this technology is safe and effective in the small animal model, but now the question is, how do we translate it into the commercialized stage and make it useful to the end user, which is the human,\u201d he said.\u202f<\/span>\u202f<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

With support from the Gates Foundation, Nguyen\u202fwill be able to test his microneedle platform on a larger animal\u2014a pig, which has skin\u202fsimilar to\u202fhumans. And if the results are similar, Nguyen\u202fpredicts\u202fthis technology could be manufactured<\/span>,<\/span> at an affordable cost, enabling both domestic and global health impact.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nguyen\u2019s\u00a0microneedle platform also caught the attention of the United States Department of Agriculture. In September, the USDA: Research, Education, and Economics division awarded Nguyen with a two-year grant for a study titled \u201cDelivery of FMDV Protein Antigens Using a Programmable Transdermal Microneedle System.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus\u00a0(FMDV) is a highly contagious disease that affects the health of livestock such as cows, pigs, sheep, and goats.\u00a0When an outbreak occurs, the disease leaves affected animals weakened and unable to produce meat and milk. FMDV causes production losses and hardships for farmers and ranchers, and has serious impacts on livestock trade.<\/span><\/p>\n

And while vaccines exist, like with humans, boosters are required to\u00a0keep the vaccine effective.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>USDA is interested in the technology because the patch will be able to deliver the initial dose and subsequent doses, or boosters, to animals without the need for rounding up and handling multiple animals at once,\u201d Nguyen explained. \u201c<\/span>This decreases stress on the animals and increases safety for the animals and their handlers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The microneedle platform is among the latest applications the Nguyen Research Group is exploring in the arena of vaccine\/drug delivery, tissue regenerative engineering, “smart” piezoelectric materials, electronic implants, and bioelectronics. Since joining the College of Engineering in 2016, Nguyen has discovered a method of sending <\/span>electric pulses through a biodegradable polymer<\/span><\/a> to assist with cartilage regeneration; he\u2019s designed a powerful <\/span>biodegradable ultrasound<\/span><\/a> device that could make brain cancers more treatable; and he used <\/span>microneedle patches to deliver antibody therapies<\/span><\/a>, which have been proven successful in treating HIV, autoimmune disorders such as multiple sclerosis, and certain types of cancer.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Christina Tamburro, post-award grants and contracts specialist for UConn\u2019s Institute of Materials Science said IMS is grateful to both the Gates Foundation and USDA for supporting Professor Nguyen\u2019s drug delivery research.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a wonderful application of material science and this is what we\u2019re all about. Ultimately, this is going to save lives and it can\u2019t get better than that,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The programmable technology, supported by the USDA and Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, eliminates the need to return to a health care provider for booster doses. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":201,"featured_media":206818,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1866],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2514],"class_list":["post-206817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-engr"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-23 11:41:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/201"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206817"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":207128,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206817\/revisions\/207128"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/206818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206817"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=206817"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=206817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}