Invited Paper BI-ThM8
Short-Pulsed Uniform Atmospheric Pressure Dielectric Barrier Discharges in Medical and Biological Surface Treatment

Thursday, December 11, 2014, 10:20 am, Room Milo

Engineering innovation has produced startling advances in healthcare. Lasers, ultrasound, ionizing and electromagnetic radiation are examples of life saving diagnostics and treatments that originated in engineering disciplines outside of medicine. In this vein, it was demonstrated that specific types of strongly non-equilibrium nanosecond pulsed atmospheric air plasmas have unique therapeutic effects and hold the promise for new medical diagnostic tools. For example, this presentation will be focused on therapeutic effect of plasmas based on their ability to deactivate pathogens directly in the wound bed, stop bleeding without damage to healthy tissue, promote cell migration and proliferation into the wound bed, angiogenesis, growth factor release, stem cell differentiation and specialization, and other effects leading to the improved healing of wounds and diseases. Mechanisms of plasma-tissue interaction through liquid medium, nanosecond plasma uniformity, and generation and control of reactive oxygen and reactive nitrogen species in plasma will be discussed in this presentation, based on results of the current DARPA and NIH-funded projects.