Nano-vaccines could immunize developing world
(Credit: LHOON. Some rights reserved.)
James Baker: What we’re doing is developing a new nano-particle based vaccine that you can put in the nose with a nose dropper, a simple device.
That’s James Baker, director of the Michigan Nanotechnology Institute for Medicine and the Biological Sciences. He’s talking about new vaccines made with nanotechnology. One big advantage is that new nano-vaccines can keep up to three months without refrigeration.
James Baker: You can imagine, being able to take one vial of vaccine out to a community that’s very remote, not have to worry about refrigerating it, then taking a simple nose dropper and administrating to remote community and administering it to the whole population at one time.
Baker explained that oil and water-based nano-particles – only 1/200th the width of a human hair – are small enough to seep into your immune system through the mucous membranes of your nose. Baker is working to develop nano-vaccines for smallpox. And he said he’s optimistic about a future vaccine for HIV.
James Baker: It allows you to vaccinate the whole world’s population rather than just the people who can afford it. Even though we’ve made great inroads with vaccines in the developed world, in the developing world they lack access to freezers and refrigerators to maintain the vaccines and clean needles to administer them.
Our thanks to Dr. James Baker, who was part of a Fred Friendly Seminar called Nanotechnology: The Power of Small on public television in 2008.
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