Air jet gun delivers needle-free vaccines in MOFs without any need for refrigeration

A new method has been developed to deliver vaccines and biologics in a powdered form that by encasing it in a metal–organic framework (MOF). This encapsulation also has the advantage that it stabilises pharmaceuticals meaning that no refrigeration is needed for drugs like vaccines. Researchers from the University of Texas at Dallas presented their work on this needleless MOF-Jet injector system, which is driven by compressed gas, at the spring meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) on 27 March.

The project was born out of pandemic boredom when its principal investigator, Jeremiah Gassensmith, was stuck at home during the Covid-19 pandemic. He decided to have some fun building a compressed gas-powered jet injector out of inexpensive components that he bought online.