Haley Bridgewater (Ph.D. Candidate) who will be defending her dissertation next week was recently highlighted in the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Biomedical Beat Blog. The article references Haley’s background, global experiences, and her microneedle project, which is alternative route of vaccination delivery. Instead of a traditional needle, a vaccine can now be delivered using a small dissolvable patch, which contains microneedles made of sugar that only pierce the outer layer of skin. This causes less skin damage, pain, and other symptoms than traditional needles, which can oftentimes be reasons for vaccine hesitancy. She is currently studying if microneedles can be utilized as an alternative delivery method for a Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) vaccine.
To read more about this article, check out the Biomedical Beat Blog.