Scientists from ETH Zürich and the Univ. of Colorado Boulder have developed a novel hydrogel platform that protects biologics, such as vaccines, enzymes, and blood products, from heat exposure. The new technique could help reduce the dependence on cold chain services, which are costly and prone to failure.
Right now, biologics must be kept in temperature-controlled environments, ranging from –80°C freezers to normal fridge temperatures (at or below 4°C). Exposure to temperatures that are too high or low, a common occurrence during storage and transport, will cause the therapeutic to unfold and lose potency.
“It is really bad for public health,” says Bruno Marco-Dufort of ETH Zürich, who coauthored the study. “There have been a lot of cases where failures in the cold chain resulted in the administration of vaccines that did not work.”
The novel hydrogel platform may help prevent such errors. It can thermally stabilize biologics by encapsulating them within a protective polymer matrix...
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