A new mobile vaccine printer has the potential to provide people in hard to reach places with protection from the world's deadliest diseases.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology say the new technology, which creates vaccine patches with thousands of microneedles rather than bottled doses, fits on a tabletop.
Many vaccines, including some used to combat Covid-19, need to be stored in very cold conditions, making distribution difficult.
But the new printer produces vaccines that are temperature stable, eliminating the need for cold storage and therefore making vaccines more widely available.
The printer could mean much more localised vaccine production, enabling health workers to respond faster to outbreaks of disease.
“We could someday have on-demand vaccine production,” says 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.”
The patches the machine produces contain hundreds of microneedles containing vaccine, which allow the liquid to dissolve in the skin.
As they do not require needle administration and can remain stable for weeks or even months, the patches and machines could help scale up vaccine provision in remote areas or those affected by sudden outbreaks.
The MIT study using mice produced thermostable Covid-19 RNA vaccines using the machine that could induce a comparable immune response to that generated by injected RNA vaccines.
The team now plans to adapt the machine to produce vaccines for other diseases, including Ebola.
While this study focused on Covid-19 RNA vaccines, the researchers plan to adapt the process to produce other types of vaccines, including vaccines made from proteins or inactivated viruses.
“The ink composition was key in stabilising mRNA vaccines, but the ink can contain various types of vaccines or even drugs, allowing for flexibility and modularity in what can be delivered using this microneedle platform,” Dr Jaklenec says.
“This work is particularly exciting as it realises the ability to produce vaccines on demand,” says Joseph DeSimone, professor of translational medicine and chemical engineering at Stanford University, who was not involved in the research.
“With the possibility of scaling up vaccine manufacturing and improved stability at higher temperatures, mobile vaccine printers can facilitate widespread access to RNA vaccines.”
Ain Dubai in numbers
126: The length in metres of the legs supporting the structure
1 football pitch: The length of each permanent spoke is longer than a professional soccer pitch
16 A380 Airbuses: The equivalent weight of the wheel rim.
9,000 tonnes: The amount of steel used to construct the project.
5 tonnes: The weight of each permanent spoke that is holding the wheel rim in place
192: The amount of cable wires used to create the wheel. They measure a distance of 2,4000km in total, the equivalent of the distance between Dubai and Cairo.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Prophets of Rage
(Fantasy Records)
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The specs
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WWE Evolution results
- Trish Stratus and Lita beat Alicia Fox and Mickie James in a tag match
- Nia Jax won a battle royal, eliminating Ember Moon last to win
- Toni Storm beat Io Shirai to win the Mae Young Classic
- Natalya, Sasha Banks and Bayley beat The Riott Squad in a six-woman tag match
- Shayna Baszler won the NXT Women’s title by defeating Kairi Sane
- Becky Lynch retained the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match
- Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women’s title by beating Nikki Bella
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Trump v Khan
2016: Feud begins after Khan criticised Trump’s proposed Muslim travel ban to US
2017: Trump criticises Khan’s ‘no reason to be alarmed’ response to London Bridge terror attacks
2019: Trump calls Khan a “stone cold loser” before first state visit
2019: Trump tweets about “Khan’s Londonistan”, calling him “a national disgrace”
2022: Khan’s office attributes rise in Islamophobic abuse against the major to hostility stoked during Trump’s presidency
July 2025 During a golfing trip to Scotland, Trump calls Khan “a nasty person”
Sept 2025 Trump blames Khan for London’s “stabbings and the dirt and the filth”.
Dec 2025 Trump suggests migrants got Khan elected, calls him a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”
More on Quran memorisation:
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500 People from Gaza enter France
115 Special programme for artists
25 Evacuation of injured and sick
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