Nicholas Owens

Nicholas Owens, known as Nick S. Owens or Mr Nick Owens, is a researcher associated with the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology (AIBN) at the University of Queensland. He has contributed to pioneering work in needle-free vaccine delivery systems, particularly the Nanopatch technology developed by Professor Mark Kendall's team. In 2016, Owens was part of the UQ research team that demonstrated the Nanopatch's efficacy in delivering inactivated poliovirus vaccine to rat skin, eliciting potent neutralising antibody responses comparable to intramuscular injection. The team included Ms Christiana Agyei-Yeboah, Dr David Muller, Professor Mark Kendall, and Dr Germain Fernando.

Owens has co-authored several peer-reviewed publications on microprojection array technologies for vaccine administration. Key works include 'Efficient Delivery of Dengue Virus Subunit Vaccines to the Skin by Microprojection Arrays' (Vaccines, 2019), where low doses of dengue subunit vaccines were successfully delivered to elicit strong neutralising antibody responses in rats. Other notable papers are 'High-density microprojection array delivery to rat skin of low doses of trivalent inactivated poliovirus vaccine elicits potent neutralising antibody responses' (Science Translational Medicine, 2017), 'Inactivated poliovirus type 2 vaccine delivered to rat skin via high density microprojection array' (Scientific Reports, 2016), 'Nanopatch-Targeted Skin Vaccination against West Nile Virus and Chikungunya Virus' (Small, 2010), and 'Programmed Ribosomal Frameshift Alters Expression of West Nile Virus Genes and Facilitates Virus Replication in Birds and Mosquitoes' (PLOS Pathogens, 2014). His contributions support advancements in efficient, painless vaccine delivery for global health challenges such as polio eradication and arbovirus control.