A team led by a Sri Lankan doctor Anushi Rajapaksha has developed a potential alternative for needle vaccination.She is the Lead Research Officer in Murdoch Children's Research Institute at Royal Children's Hospital.Lead researcher Dr. Anushi Rajapaksha said the biggest stumbling block in developing needle-free vaccination had been overcoming the fragile structure of vaccines. "Vaccines are proteins which are very sensitive to heat and forces.The problem has been getting them up in an aerial form, into a mist,"she said.Researchers from Murdoch Children's Research Institute and Monash University also hope to use the matchbox-sized device to deliver stem cells into the lungs of premature babies to repair their damaged tissue.This pre-clinical studies are published in the Respiratory journal showed this technology could create protective flu antibodies in the blood of sheep which have a similar lung structure to humans at levels considered significant by the World Health Organization.
