ALTERSPAN
Scientific illustration of a mosquito’s compound eye, antennae and slender mouthparts, illuminated in amber against a dark background.

Science

Learning from
the living world.

Structures that cross a barrier.
Cells that remember an encounter.
A closer look at both.

Begin with a mosquito
01 / The point of entryMosquito mouthparts · Scientific illustration

01 / Bioinspired delivery

Six fine stylets.
One coordinated system.

A mosquito’s proboscis contains six slender stylets, supported by an outer sheath. Shape, support and movement work together to cross the skin.

Our comparison examines published puncture experiments and the constraints that matter for dissolving patches.

Biological puncture and the dissolving patch

02 / Tissue Models

Skin, from the inside.

A surface becomes a landscape of cells, fibres and living interactions.

Interpretive cutaway of thin human skin: a compact outer barrier, living epidermal layers, and collagen with small blood vessels beneath the epidermis.
Thin human skin · Epidermis and upper dermisLayers and colours are interpretive; not to scale.

The barrier is
only the beginning.

Human skin studies help distinguish material left on the surface from material recovered within tissue.

Recovered dose and biological activity answer different questions. A delivery result depends on both the tissue preparation and the measurement.

Reading tissue evidence

Published culture studies use different preparations and observation periods. Their findings apply to the conditions tested.

Excised skin can support conclusions about local delivery and response. It cannot establish systemic circulation or vaccine protection.

03 / Cellular regulation

A cell can remember.

An exposure can end while its influence on a later response remains.

Conceptual molecular illustration of DNA winding around histone protein assemblies in an irregular chromatin fibre.
Chromatin · Molecular illustrationDNA organised around histone proteins

How DNA is packaged helps shape which genes a cell can use. Our analyses examine peptide–chromatin docking and public gene-expression data.

A predicted interaction and a change in gene expression are different kinds of evidence. Neither alone demonstrates a lasting cellular memory.

Recovery and memory

A signal returning towards baseline describes recovery. Establishing memory requires evidence that an earlier exposure changes a later response.

Our research

Questions we study.

How material enters tissue, how cells respond and how those changes are measured.

How does a dose
get in?

Published puncture studies show how shape, support and motion affect entry. Our comparison examines which findings are relevant to a dissolving patch.

Fig. 04Concept research bench
ALTERSPAN
Positioning the applicatorConcept instrument · illustrative motion
Immunisation off the grid.
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