Pembroke Engineer Imogen Cowley wins Telegraph STEM Award

Congratulations to Pembroke fourth year Engineering student Imogen Cowley (MEng Engineering Science, 2013), who was recently awarded a Telegraph STEM Award in the Healthcare category. 

Entrants to the Healthcare category were asked to propose an idea for how to prevent or treat pneumonia in children in developing countries. In 2015, 1 in 6 childhood deaths were caused by pneumonia, even though an effective vaccine has been available since 1977. Moreover, just 31% of the global population are vaccinated, in part due to the lack of available healthcare facilities in particular areas and the need for multiple visits to achieve immunity.

Imogen proposed the SnapVaccine, a novel vaccine delivery service that tackles one of the major problems surrounding safe vaccination in developing countries; the need for vaccines to be continuously refrigerated. 

The SnapVaccine would contain the molecular components and DNA instructions to build a ‘pneumococcal surface protein’ (PspA or PspB), required for the vaccination. These would be freeze dried in powder form, which means they can be stored and distributed at room temperature.

SnapVaccine was inspired by the simple, user-friendly mechanism for contained chemical mixing found in glow-sticks. Her design incorporates an innovative 2-step snap mechanism and a contained mixing system, to allow the user to mix the components of the vaccine at the point of delivery. The vaccine is then delivered through microneedles in a stick-on patch which can be administered by an untrained person.

Many elements of the design have had promising results under separate investigations. PspA is already being investigated as a new pneumonia vaccine option, such as successful pneumonia protection in mice. Microneedle technology is also attracting research and investment; a flu vaccine microneedle patch has been developed and achieved good results in human trials.

Speaking about this award, Imogen said, ‘Winning this category means I will spend some time working with the category sponsor, ‘GlaxoSmithKline’, and also means I have a shot in the final.’

The Pembroke Annual Fund is glad to support Imogen in the development of her prototype for the final presentation. The overall winner, who will be announced in June 2018, will receive £25,000 and career mentoring.