“In order to be protected against most pathogens, one needs multiple vaccinations,” Jaklenec said. The problem is compounded because many vaccines, such as the vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), require multiple doses spaced out at certain intervals. One factor that makes vaccination campaigns in those nations more difficult is that there is little infrastructure for storing medical records, so there’s often no easy way to determine who needs a particular vaccine. Vaccines save an estimated 2–3 million lives every year, but another 1.5 million vaccine-preventable deaths occur each year due to undervaccination, primarily in developing countries, the authors commented. Langer and Jaklenec are co-corresponding authors of the team’s published paper in Science Translational Medicine, which is titled, “ Biocompatible near-infrared quantum dots delivered to the skin by microneedle patches record vaccination.” “This study confirmed that incorporating the vaccine with the dye in the microneedle patches did not affect the efficacy of the vaccine or our ability to detect the dye,” added Ana Jaklenec, a research scientist at MIT’s Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research. “It’s possible someday that this ‘invisible’ approach could create new possibilities for data storage, biosensing, and vaccine applications that could improve how medical care is provided, particularly in the developing world,” said senior researcher Robert Langer, PhD, the David H. Experiments in live rats confirmed that the microneedle patches could also successfully deliver a polio vaccine at amounts generated therapeutic antibody levels. The researchers encapsulated their quantum dots in microspheres made of PMMA, a material that improves biocompatibility. Tests using the platform showed that QDs delivered to samples of human skin were still detectable after photobleaching that simulated five years of exposure sunlight, and they remained detectable for up to nine months when tested in rats.

The quantum dots are composed of nanocrystals, which emit near-infrared (NIR) light that can be detected by a specially equipped smartphone. Researchers headed by a team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have created a microneedle platform using fluorescent microparticles called quantum dots (QD), which can deliver vaccines and at the same time invisibly encode vaccination history directly in the skin.

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