I saw University of Leeds students wow Health Secretary with their vaccine technology
As a journalist, I accompany politicians on a lot of visits to different businesses, schools and start-ups across the county.
Sometimes Cabinet members will just pick out a place where they can pop on a hard hat and a high-vis jacket for a photo opportunity.
And to be honest the locations and businesses don’t often linger long in the memory.
However, sometimes these trips will be revelatory, and could potentially change the course of politics.
My trip to the University of Leeds this week was one of those.
I watched on as the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, visited Microneedle Solutions’ laboratory in the Nexus building.
The start-up was launched by Henry Dunne and Ian Bartenev, both now 23, in their second year of undergraduate studies at the university, when they were stuck in the flat during Covid wondering why the vaccination process was so expensive and inefficient.
Since then, the pair have now created a patch, with multiple tiny microneedles, which allows patients to easily administer a vaccine at home by simply applying the patch to your skin and pressing a button.
It would allow the entire country to be vaccinated in a couple of days during a pandemic.
Mr Streeting immediately realised the impact this could potentially have on the NHS.
No longer would GPs and pharmacists have to spend hours giving jabs to millions of people for flu every year.
Instead patches could be posted to everyone’s house, just like you would receive an Amazon parcel.
For people with diabetes, or other similar conditions, it would revolutionise the care they receive.
Afterwards, Mr Streeting told me this pair were the “epitome of the Leeds success story”.
So when, in future, you receive an immunisation through a patch, remember that the idea was conceived at a student dormitory in Leeds.