Vaccine Patch

Final
Presentation
By Gabriella Vasquez,
Lucy Ostrowski and
Sebastian Orellana
Design Step 1
Problem Definition
A problem with vaccines is that some people, especially young children, find them
painful and remotely unbearable, so they refuse to receive them.

We also found that due to the need of facilities and administration, a large
population in other countries don’t have access to vaccinations.
Design Requirements
To solve the problem previously stated, we needed to create a solution that
incorporated:

❖ Painless injection method

❖ Self administration

We also wanted to make it more environmentally friendly than current methods.

Project Proposal
The overall goal of a project proposal was to create a solid outline for what our
project was going to be. This was the first major stepping stone, and we contacted
our mentor for help. Our mentor, Anthony Campoy, is a UC Irvine Biomedical
Engineer.

● Timeframe
● Budgeting
● Research
● Problem
● Current solution
Design Step 2
Alternative Concepts
1)Vaccine patch with biodegradable 2)Oral vaccination with nonprofit
cone-shaped microneedles, instructional sponsorships, bubble wrap/packaging
video, cooler-type packaging. peanuts, environmentally friendly
- Video not completely accessible to manufacturing, and instructional manual
everyone included in packaging.
- After experimenting we found that - Oral vaccination would completely
the full cone-shaped needle would be eliminate pain factor, but it wasn’t our
too thick at the top and would cause main focus
pain, which we want to avoid. - This packaging technique wasn’t great
for the environment

Alternative concepts ruled out with decision matrices.

Conceptual Drawings
(3 Design
Possibilities)
Design Step 3
Final Concept
Final Concept
A vaccine patch with cheap materials, biodegradable microneedles, packaging that
perfectly fits each component, and instructional pictures on the actual patch.

9801 dissolvable microneedles

Microneedle Dimensions: 1.2mm x 0.2 mm

An adhesive patch that keeps the needles adhered to the skin.

Why we chose the final concept:
● Most environmentally friendly product out of all of the options. This is due to the biodegradable
microneedles and the fitted packaging that produces less waste.

● Easy to use because it would have clear and labeled picture instructions on the actual
packaging. This makes instructions clear and followable, even if one cannot read.

● Fitted compartments to ensure no movement occurs while shipping (safe packaging)

● Easy to mass produce because it is a simple patch that could be broken down into parts to be
separately mass produced.

● Affordability- cheaper materials

Detailed Design
This is a 3D model of our design
from the bottom.

Adhesive patch

Polymer baseplate

Dissolvable microneedles
Manufacturing
The adhesive patch will be made of multiple layers of structural and plastic film
coated in ester resin and acrylic acid.

The baseplate will be made of the polymer hyaluronic acid to adhere the needles to
the adhesive patch.

The needles will form in a silicon mold and be comprised of a mix of hyaluronic acid
and the chosen vaccine.
Up-close details
The dissolvable microneedle has a shape that is part cone
and part cylinder. The cone-shaped end was proven to
cause the least amount of skin breakage in one of our
experiments. This model shows how the needle is hollow.
The inside would be filled with the vaccine and the outside
would be made of dissolvable hyaluronic acid.
 Up-Close Details
This is a photo of the modeled patch from the side. This clearly
shows how many microneedles are part of the patch itself. Each
microneedle is 1.2 mm long and 0.2 mm wide.
Design Step 4
 Experiment results
Thickness of 1.27 cm (½ inch) 1 cm ¾ cm ½ cm
sugar “needle”

Experiment One

Time to dissolve 17 min 48 sec 11 min 59 sec 10 min 57 sec 7 min 30 sec - Thinner coating=faster

in 99℉ water dissolving

Pencil shaped (short Cone shaped Pencil shaped (long

and wide) and skinny) Experiment Two
- Cone shaped=least amount of
Trial 1 20 mm 9 mm 16 mm damage
*Measurement in mm of diameter in
Trial 2 19 mm 8 mm 14 mm
damage to styrofoam
Trial 3 18 mm 9 mm 14 mm

Average 19 mm 8.66 mm 14.66 mm

Design Step 5
Design Defense
The main goal of Step 5 was to create a design defense. This design defense is a
presentation that proves how we followed the principles of engineering in our
design process. The purpose is to present our project to a possible “jury” that could
accept our design and maybe fund it. Overall, it really allowed us to collect our
thoughts and bring all of the separate pieces of the project into one cohesive unit.

We were supposed to answer the following questions:

• Did the team adhere to the Engineering Design Process?
• How does the final concept work?
• What level of risk is associated with this design?
• Do the students appear to be teaming effectively?
Strengths
Our design incorporates:

❖ A painless method of injecting vaccinations

❖ An easy self administrative product
❖ Minimal waste compared to current methods
❖ Small and safe packaging
Expectations
We expect our design to be a public product in order for it to be cheap and
accessible to all. We will not privatize or sell the rights to a pharmaceutical company.

In a survey we conducted at the beginning of our research, we found that 33% of our
population don’t receive vaccines because of the pain and 17% stating vaccines are
too expensive for them to get, as well as 50% wanting a new painless method. We
expect our product to help these percentages and result in more people getting
vaccinated.
Design Steps 6 & 7
Functioning Prototype
Due to a limit of resources, we were not able to create a physical functioning
prototype. Instead, we created detailed blueprints for our product and followed the
testing and results of a lab funding a similar design.

Hypothetically, we could have followed our manufacturing process designed in Step

3 to create a functioning prototype. We would have needed access to a safe lab with
all equipment, pure hyaluronic acid, a vaccine strain, and a test subject.
Prototype Testing
The lab report we followed was conducted at the Center for Drug Design,
Development and Delivery and the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience at
the Georgia Institute of Technology and was funded by the National Institutes of
Health.

These scientists tested the amount of pain caused by each needle by inserting
between 1 and 50 microneedles with lengths ranging from 480 to 1450 μm, widths
from 160 to 465 μm,thicknesses from 30 to 100 μm and tip angles from 20° to 90°
into the forearms of ten healthy, human subjects in a double-blinded, randomized
study.
Results
Analysis
This clinical trial was able to successfully create vaccination patches that caused
significant less pain than a standard needle. They were also able to find the length,
width, array, and angle of the needles that caused the least amount of pain. We
based our final digital prototype off of these findings.
Vaccine Patch Blueprint
Packaging Blueprint
Design Step 8
Digital Technical Poster
Creating a Technical Poster allows us to
display our team and project to a large
audience in hopes of gaining support from
possible funders. The poster is designed
to catch people’s attention and give them
an overview of what we’ve been working
on.
Promotion Opportunities: Business Card
Promotion Opportunities: Commercial
Team Website
https://sites.google.com/students.nusd.org/biocreate/home
Thank you