FRESH: Vaccine Refrigeration for Developing Regions


	Team FRESH (Fixing Refrigeration Efficiency to Sustain Health) is a sophomore Gemstone team at the University of Maryland-College Park. A diverse team of thirteen undergraduates led by our mentor, Assistant Professor of Bioengineering, Dr. Sameer Shah, we seek to design and test a novel form of refrigeration for vaccine transportation and storage.

Research Problem

Shortage of potent vaccines in developing regions due to improper refrigeration throughout the cold chain

Research Question

How can we design and build a sustainable refrigeration device that better accommodates the storage requirements for vaccines?

Our project aims to positively impact the health care situation in developing countries by providing an alternative technology for temperature control of these vaccines throughout their transport and storage. With more precise temperature control mechanisms, vaccine wastage will be reduced. We hope to increase the technical capacity of these systems to treat vaccine-preventable diseases by creating a more reliable refrigeration prototype that more efficiently stores vaccines, and ensures their potency. This prototype will increase efficiency in the cold chain, improve access to vaccinations, and add to existing epidemiological research.

Our group plans to research new and current storage technologies, including phase change material (PCM), compression, and electric technologies, in order to find ways that preexisting concepts can be synthesized or combined to produce a more efficient refrigeration design. As such, once we complete our model we hope that other researchers, businesses, and non-profit organizations can use our prototype to model future refrigerators built for a similar purpose in other parts of the world or in different parts of the cold chain.