Gates foundation approves for vaccine testing "with digital card under the skin" for Kenya, Bangladesh and Malawi. Patent # 666 (060606)

[link to www.lemonde.fr (secure)]

[link to bloogify.com (secure)]

Kenya and Malawi, test areas for a vaccination card injected under the skin

American engineers have developed subcutaneous labeling and vaccination encapsulated in nanoparticles.

Engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have invented injectable nanoparticles under the skin that emit fluorescent light invisible to the naked eye but visible by a smartphone, and which could one day be used to confirm that the person has been vaccinated .

The Gates Foundation, which is funding the project, has also launched opinion polls in Kenya, Malawi and Bangladesh to determine whether people will be ready to adopt these microscopic quantum dots, or prefer to stick to old vaccination cards.

Follow our series Africa at the challenge of child health

The idea is to write proof of the vaccine on the body itself, in developing countries where paper vaccination cards are often wrong or incomplete, and where electronic medical records do not exist.

The system, described Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine , has so far been tested only on rats but the researchers, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (partner of Monde Afrique ), hope to test them on humans in Africa in the next two years, co-author Ana Jaklenec, biomedical engineer at MIT, told AFP.

Engineers have spent a great deal of time finding components that are safe for the body, stable and capable of lasting for several years.

Luminescent cross

The final recipe is composed of copper-based nanocrystals, called quantum dots , 3.7 nanometers (nm) in diameter, and encapsulated in microparticles of 16 micrometers (μm, 1 μm equal one millionth of a meter, and 1 nm equals one billionth). The whole is injected by a patch of micro-needles 1.5 mm in length.

After being applied to the skin for two minutes, the micro-needles dissolve and leave small dots under the skin, distributed for example in the form of a circle or a cross. These small dots are excited by a part of the light spectrum invisible to us, close to infrared.

A modified smartphone, pointed at the skin, makes the circle or the cross appear fluorescent on the screen. Researchers would like to see the measles vaccine injected with these little dots. A doctor could years later point to a smartphone to check if the person has been vaccinated.

MIT researchers presented, on December 18, 2019 in Washington, a subcutaneous vaccination technology encapsulated in nanoparticles and nanocrystals which become fluorescent when approaching near infrared light. KJ MCHUGH / KJ MCHUGH ET AL., SCIENCE TRANSLATIONAL MEDICINE (2019) / AFP

The technique is said to be more durable than indelible felt marking, for which the researchers simulated five years of sun exposure. And it requires less technology than an iris scan or the maintenance of medical databases.

The limit of the concept is that the technique will be useful for identifying unvaccinated children only if it becomes the exclusive tool. Also, will people accept multiple markings under the skin for each vaccine? And what will happen to the points when the children's bodies grow?

The Gates Foundation is continuing the project and funding opinion polls in Kenya, Malawi and Bangladesh to determine whether people will be ready to adopt these microscopic quantum dots, or prefer to stick to old vaccination cards

Last Edited by Cosmic Charlie on 04/18/2020 09:54 PM