Immuno Forest: Microneedles for Delivering Vaccines into the Skin

Immuno Forest: Microneedles for Delivering Vaccines into the Skin

Collections: Image Award Winners

2012 Award Winner

Peter DeMuth
Irvine and Hammond Labs

Koch Institute at MIT

These biodegradable microneedles, each less than a millimeter tall, could be coated or embedded with vaccines and applied to the skin as a patch.  The needles would penetrate the highly immunoactive outer layers of the skin but not the deeper layers containing nerves and blood vessels, making them painless, safe and potent.

Video

Peter DeMuth explains how and why he captured this image of a microneedle array.