Why Vaccines of the Future Will Come in a Band-Aid

Why Vaccines of the Future Will Come in a Band-Aid. Okay, so it probably won’t be a Band-Aid exactly, but it’s very likely that the tetanus shot of tomorrow will be given not via needlestick to the muscle, but by a simple application of the target to the skin. Both Thomas Kupper from Brigham and Women’s, as well as researchers from the Whitehead Institute, are working on the early stages of the concept. The idea behind their work is not just that it would make those shots less painful — although it would — but that unlike muscle, human skin is already an active player in the body’s natural defense system. That makes it a much better target when it comes to things like preparing against future invaders and, so far, it looks like it may be able to garner a much stronger reaction than the traditional shot. [Boston Globe]