Oral Quick-Dissolve Strips for Rotavirus Vaccine
A team of Hopkins undergraduate biomedical engineering students developed a potentially revolutionary way to inoculate infants and children against rotavirus, a disease that kills some 600,000 children worldwide each year. The novel system they created would deliver life-saving medicine on a thin strip that dissolves in a child's mouth (think breath-freshener technology) in a matter of seconds.
The seven Hopkins students, working with Professor H. Q. Mao of the Hopkins materials science and biomedical engineering departments, and Aridis Pharmaceuticals, devised a coating for the medicinal strips that would remain intact at room temperature and when exposed to a child's stomach acid, but would dissolve in the chemically neutral environment of the small intestine.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation announced that it will provide Aridis with $2 million for testing and refinements of the students' invention. A provisional patent has been filed.
Sponsor
Undergarduate Student Design Team Members
- Christopher Yu,
- Rohan Agrawal
- Yang Li
- Dhanya Rangaraj
- Jonathan Yen
- Shaoyi Zhang
- Judy Qiu
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