Light-assisted drying (LAD) for the thermal stabilization of biologics: design of an optical system to improve drying efficiency and process multiple samples simultaneously

Many biologics such as vaccines are temperature sensitive and must be stored and transported at refrigerated/freezing temperatures. This need for temperature-controlled storage and distribution is especially challenging in low-resource settings. The goal of this project is to develop a new processing method, light-assisted drying (LAD), to dehydrate biologics in preparation for long-term dry-state storage at ambient temperatures to reduce or eliminate the need for cold storage. This study explores strategies for further expediting LAD processing times and for the simultaneous processing of multiple samples.