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Bio Create
Initial Project Proposal

September 11th, Two Thousand Twenty

Vaccine Alternatives

Lucille Ostrowski

Vincent Long

Gabriella Vasquez

Sebastian Orellana
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Table of Contents

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Broader Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Timeframe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Project Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Developmental Process . . . . . . . . 4

Different Tests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Surveys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Research Questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Current Solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Scientific/Engineering Concepts . . . 6

Monitoring and Evaluation . . . . . . . 6

Signatures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Citations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
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Background:
Sometimes, people (especially young children) experience pain during vaccinations. This is a
very big problem, because it associates a healthy choice, getting a vaccination with pain, which
may prevent an individual from getting the large number of vaccines necessary for surviving in a
world with many diseases going around constantly.

Objectives:
Our goals are creating an alternative to using needles for vaccinations which:
1. Aren’t painful
2. Work
3. Are cheap
4. Are easy to administer
5. Can be widely used

Broader scope:
Humans around the world share the fear for needles and annoyance from the pain. On a
large scope, our product can help patients in any country through painless and accessible
vaccinations. We want to make the cost of production relatively cheap so that the cost of
distribution is affordable for most. We also want to eliminate the cost of administration by
making the vaccine patch easy to use. Our product can help advance the next-generation of
painless drug delivery systems.
On a smaller scope, our research and form of testing will all be conducted locally.
Without proper access to create a vaccination, we will be making a prototype and surveying
people in the medical world for their opinions. We can conduct more research at our local Kaiser
and Sutter Health Hospitals as well as BioMarin. With our materials, all we can create are
different types of patches and hypothetically do the science and math for the needed
vaccinations.
Our patch is not specific in terms of what disease it will be fighting, meaning our
prototype will have to be capable of administering multiple vaccines. This will make it more
universally usable for the medical world.

Timeframe:

Task Start End

Design Step 1 - Identify/Define the 8/27/20 9/4/20

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problem
- Customer/
Marketing Research
- Identify Possible
solution/solutions
- Identify design
specifications
- Project proposal

Design Step 2 - Brainstorm 9/5/20 9/18/20

alternatives
- Decompose
Product
- Form three design
concepts
- Sketch design
concepts

Design Step 3 - Evaluate 9/18/20 10/2/20

Alternatives
- Select Design
Concept
- Decision Matrix

Design Step 4 - Use analysis, 10/2/20 10/16/20

experiments, and
models to help
establish dimensions
and proof of concept
- Prepare detailed
drawings of the
design concept you
selected.

Design Step 5 - Create presentation 10/17/20 10/30/20

to defend the design

Design Step 6 - Test product for 10/31/20 11/13/20

preliminary
functionality
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- Conduct
performance tests
- Get subfunctions
working

Design Step 7 - Design 11/14/20 11/27/20

performance test
- Optimize
performance

Design Step 8 Prepare final design 11/28/20 12/11/20

report

Project Budget:
Our budget is relatively small due to the inaccessibility of proper equipment. Our
prototypes will be created in a personal 3D printer we have access to. The PLA is sold in 600 g
for $32 each. We will only need one spool of this. The previously bought printer and software
costs a total of $350.
Any other needed materials will be hard to come by. We will reach out to the local
hospitals and labs to see if they have any help or resources to give. All in all, materials will be
quite cheap.

Developmental Process:
Firstly, we needed to recognize what was needed in the industry we chose. In other
words, we needed to define the problem. In the biomedical field, tools to better the distribution
of medicine is in high demand. After brainstorming and narrowing down options, we decided
that a major problem in medicine is vaccines. Many people refuse vaccinations, and we wanted
to pinpoint why.
Next we did lots of research on vaccinations. We decided that a major reason for the fear
of shots is the pain or the needles. We researched ways that doctors have tried to eliminate this.
We found that there are many small solutions, but not many are fully implemented or widely
spread. For example, shot blockers are meant to distract from the needles pain, and the nasal
vaccine is a spray into the nasal cavities.
Next we brainstormed what we could engineer that would solve the problem and come
out better than previous products. We decided that a vaccine patch is what we wanted to design.
The requirements that our product needed to meet were painless, cheap, and easy to administer.
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Our overall goal was to lessen the pain of vaccines in hopes to get more clientele, and to
make the vaccines accessible to other places where hospitals and nurses trained to sterilize and
give shots are not available.
The next step in our design process was to get approval from a mentor. We reached out to
a biomedical engineer in the area, and are working to set up a meeting to discuss our plan and
ask for approval.
The next step is to start prototyping our product, making sure that the problem we met at
the beginning of the process is solved. We will start this step after approval from both our
teacher and mentor.

Tests, Surveys, and Research Questions:

Our Survey: ​https://forms.gle/46pPskHy7wUhZKvSA

Demographic Beliefs of People Polled

❏ 95% Believe vaccines are safe
❏ 99% of people polled have been vaccinated before
❏ 33% of people who have ever refused a vaccine said it was because of the needle
❏ 50% of people would prefer a non needle based vaccine
❏ 64% of people wouldn’t care if an alternate version was less effective
❏ 17% said that the price of a vaccine is a factor in them getting it
❏ 73% believe that a fear of needles prevents vaccinations

Based on the results shown in our survey we can safely say that there is a large market for
our project. We also were able to confirm that the need we are meeting is real and an issue we
can fix. Due to our responses there is a very good chance we will have a successful product that
can be trusted by the consumers and users.

Current Solutions :
What people are doing currently to curb the problem of pain during vaccination is topical
anesthesia and squeezing a stress ball or distracting oneself from the shot (the “look away”
method). Another strategy is a rewards system, but none of these change the nature of the
vaccination itself. It is still a needle going through some part of the arm, so we need a new
solution to these great problems.
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Scientific/Engineering Concepts:
Need to knows
❏ Potential clients
❏ Areas in need
❏ How much clients are willing to pay for the product
❏ Needs to be FDA approved
❏ What are the needs for that?
Need to improve
❏ Materials
❏ Cost to make the product
❏ Narrow down how to make the vaccine painless
Logistics
❏ Legal steps
❏ Possible sponsors
Monitoring and Evaluation:

Our project will be monitored by us, Mr. Tronconi, and our mentor. The official
evaluation will take place December 2020, and be conducted by Mr. Tronconi and several
industry professionals.

Signatures:

Gabriella Vasquez Lucille Ostrowski Vincent Long Sebastian Orellana

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Citations:
https://www.healthline.com/health-news/5-ways-to-make-shots-painless-for-kids#The-need-for-
needle-pain-intervention