PowderMed, based in Oxford, is
developing a DNA - based vaccine that works by spraying
gold particles
coated with avian flu genes directly into human skin with high - pressure helium.
Last year, researchers at Rice University
developed a similar treatment that uses a near - infrared laser to heat nanoshells — microscopic glass beads
coated in
gold that are too large to be absorbed by healthy cells but small enough to sneak inside tumors through their blood vessels.