To maintain stability and viability, most childhood vaccines must be kept cool – both heat and freezing can ruin them. Vaccines must be refrigerated at the correct temperature throughout transportation, storage, and delivery. This cold chain is difficult and costly to maintain, especially in developing countries. Advances in materials science and the preparation of biological materials, however, have created new possibilities for developing temperature-stable vaccines. 
 
Drs. Sarkari and Coeshott and their colleagues are working to identify Pluronic polymer-based formulations that stabilize vaccines from -10°C to 45°C; Their aim is to develop vaccines that are resistant to freezing and form protective matrices at elevated temperatures. Investigators are evaluating formulations based on Pluronic F127 using vaccines for measles and hepatitis B.
 
Investigators prepared more than 200 formulations based on the use of Pluronic F127, a polymer used in the formulation of many drugs, and modified the properties of these products by adding substances including salts, sugars, and polyols. Rather than developing a single formulation profile, they chose to generate separate profiles for both the measles and the hepatitis B vaccines. They have identified lead formulations that may have the potential to help solve the problem of thermal instability in vaccines.