1 of 3 | A robotic arm inside MIT's-new vaccine printer injects ink into microneedle molds (pictured), and a vacuum chamber below the mold sucks the ink down and all the way through to the tips of the needles. Photo courtesy of MIT
April 24 (UPI) -- Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology unveiled a mobile vaccine printer Monday that could be used for rapid-response vaccination programs in remote areas lacking medical staff, equipment and critical infrastructure, such as refrigeration.
The vaccine can be delivered via thumbnail-sized patches that contain hundreds of microneedles printed with ink that contains vaccine molecules encapsulated in fatty nanoparticles, allowing them to be stored at room temperature, according to the MIT study published in the journal Nature Biotechnology.
The microneedles, which are made of PVC and soluble PVA used to generate the 3D support structure, dissolve under the skin releasing the vaccine.
With skin-patch vaccines under development for polio, measles and rubella, the MIT team believes its printer could help solve the age-old problem of supplying vaccines and drugs quickly to those who need them and without the need for an advanced healthcare system.
"We could someday have on-demand vaccine production," said lead author Ana Jaklenec, a research scientist at MIT's Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research.
"If, for example, there was an Ebola outbreak in a particular region, one could ship a few of these printers there and vaccinate the people in that location," said Jaklenec, who noted the team had demonstrated the technique's efficacy with COVID-19 RNA vaccines in mice.
To test the printed vaccine, two sets of mice were given two doses of COVID-19 vaccine four weeks apart, one via a traditional intramuscular injection and the other via printed skin patch. Mice that received the microneedle patch had a strong antibody response similar to mice given the traditional injected vaccine.
The researchers plan to adapt the process for non-RNA vaccines, including those made from proteins or inactivated viruses.
Jaklenic said that the ink composition was key in stabilizing mRNA vaccines, but the ink could contain various types of vaccines or even drugs, allowing for flexibility and modularity in what could be delivered via the microneedle platform.
"This work is particularly exciting as it realizes the ability to produce vaccines on demand," said Joseph DeSimone, a professor of translational medicine and chemical engineering at Stanford University.
"With the possibility of scaling up vaccine manufacturing and improved stability at higher temperatures, mobile vaccine printers can facilitate widespread access to RNA vaccines," said DeSimone, who was not involved in the MIT study.
