Prince William says wife Kate is 'doing well'
Prince William said on Friday his wife Kate was 'doing well' in a rare public comment about the Princess of Wales as she undergoes preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
A team of scientists have developed a painless way to deliver a vaccine shot without the use of a needle while offering a better immune response, they say.
Researchers from Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say that their 3D-printed vaccine patch can offer an immune response that's much stronger than a vaccine delivered with a traditional jab.
As described in their paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August, the polymer patch is one square centimetre in size and contains 100 3D-printed microneedles. The needles are 700 micrometres long; just barely long enough to penetrate the skin and deliver the vaccine.
When tested on mice, the researchers found that the vaccine patch generated an antibody response that was 20 times higher than a traditional needle shot after three weeks and 50 times higher after a month.
Needle shots typically bypass the skin and are instead injected in the muscle or the subcutaneous space, which refers to the layer of tissue underneath the skin. But because the skin is rich in immune cells, vaccines delivered into the skin cells, known as intradermal vaccination, often have improved efficacy, researchers say.
However, intradermal vaccination is difficult to administer with traditional needles and can be painful for the recipient.
Researchers say the vaccine patches with microneedles can solve these problems, providing an easy and painless way to deliver intradermal vaccines. This could also potentially reduce vaccine hesitancy for people who suffer from needle phobia, they say.
Needle shots typically need to be administered by trained professionals and have to be stored in freezers or refrigerators. However, vaccine patches have the vaccine embedded in the patch, which means that the vaccine can be self-administered and does not require any special storage units.
"In developing this technology, we hope to set the foundation for even more rapid global development of vaccines, at lower doses, in a pain- and anxiety-free manner,” said lead researcher Joseph DeSimone in a news release.
While microneedles aren't new, co-lead author Shaomin Tian says that manufacturing challenges have held back the development of this technology. It's difficult to mass-produce microneedles that are adapted to different types of vaccines and are sharp enough to penetrate the skin, she explained.
However, Tian said the 3D-printed nature of these microneedles can address such manufacturing challenges. The microneedles can be customized to be used for the flu, measles, hepatitis or COVID-19 vaccines.
“Our approach allows us to directly 3D print the microneedles, which gives us lots of design latitude for making the best microneedles from a performance and cost point of view,” she said in the news release.
The research team's next step is to integrate the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna into the patches.
“One of the biggest lessons we’ve learned during the pandemic is that innovation in science and technology can make or break a global response,” DeSimone said.
Prince William said on Friday his wife Kate was 'doing well' in a rare public comment about the Princess of Wales as she undergoes preventative chemotherapy for cancer.
Canadian Blood Services issued an apology on Friday to the LGBTQ2S+ community for what it now admits was a harmful and discriminatory blood donation policy that prevented sexually active men who have sex with men and some trans people from donating blood and plasma.
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow says that she is hopeful an announcement could be made soon amid multiple reports that a WNBA team is coming to Toronto in 2026.
A 4.2-magnitude earthquake was recorded west of Vancouver Island early Friday morning.
A provincial coroner will be investigating the death of 68-year-old David Lippert, who suffered a cardiac arrest while waiting in a crowded emergency room in Kitchener, Ont.
Police in Newfoundland say patrol officers were assaulted Thursday by a "very irate male" wielding a block of cheese.
Average hourly wages among Canadian employees rose to $34.95 on a year-over-year basis in April, a 4.7 per cent increase, according to a Statistics Canada report released Friday morning.
Andy Kim's 'Rock Me Gently' is marking a major milestone, as it celebrates its 50th anniversary.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A family of fifth generation farmers from Ituna, Sask. are trying to find answers after discovering several strange objects lying on their land.
A Listowel, Ont. man, drafted by the Hamilton Tigercats last week, is also getting looks from the NFL, despite only playing 27 games of football in his life.
A small Ajax dessert shop that recently received a glowing review from celebrity food critic Keith Lee is being forced to move after a zoning complaint was made following the social media influencer’s visit last month.
The Canada Science and Technology Museum is inviting visitors to explore their poop. A new exhibition opens at the Ottawa museum on Friday called, 'Oh Crap! Rethinking human waste.'
The Regina Police Service says it is the first in Saskatchewan and possibly Canada to implement new technology in its detention facility that will offer real-time monitoring of detainees’ vital health metrics.
The stakes have been set for a bet between Vancouver and Edmonton's mayors on who will win Round 2 of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
A grieving mother is hosting a helmet drive in the hopes of protecting children on Manitoba First Nations from a similar tragedy that killed her daughter.
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
A P.E.I. lighthouse and a New Brunswick river are being honoured in a Canada Post series.