this curious life

An Australian researcher has invented a revolutionary non-invasive way to inoculate against life-threatening diseases.

 

'A biomedical engineer, Kendall looks set to revolutionise the delivery of vaccines with the Nanopatch, a much less-invasive technology than the traditional hypodermic needle and syringe “jabs” that have been extending the human lifespan for nearly 160 years.

 

The Nanopatch is a 1cm square silicon wafer with 20,000 invisible, vaccine-coated micro-projections that can painlessly push through the skin’s outer layer to epidermis and dermis layers rich with immune cells. Studies in animal models show it’s a more effective delivery method than the needle-and-syringe method, which delivers mostly to muscle tissues with comparatively few immune cells.

 

Nanopatch needs just 1/100th of the amount of vaccine used in a typical needle-administered dose, which means the new delivery style would be much cheaper, as well as make the experience less stressful for the needle-phobic. It travels well, too. Nanopatch’s dry-coated vaccines are thermo-stable, requiring no refrigeration. Plus, because the Nanopatch process does not draw blood, the risk of infection is considerably reduced.'