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Focus on plasma medicine

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journal contribution
posted on 2010-06-23, 10:21 authored by G.E. Morfill, Michael G. Kong, J.L. Zimmermann
‘Plasma Healthcare’ is an emerging interdisciplinary research topic of rapidly growing importance, exploring considerable opportunities at the interface of plasma physics, chemistry and engineering with life sciences. Some of the scientific discoveries reported so far have already demonstrated clear benefits for healthcare in areas of medicine, food safety, environmental hygiene, and cosmetics. Examples include ongoing studies of prion inactivation, chronic wound treatment and plasma-mediated cancer therapy. Current research ranges from basic physical processes, plasma chemical design, to the interaction of plasmas with (i) eukaryotic (mammalian) cells; (ii) prokaryotic (bacteria) cells, viruses, spores and fungi; (iii) DNA, lipids, proteins and cell membranes; and (iv) living human, animal and plant tissues in the presence of biofluids. Of diverse interests in this new field is the need for hospital disinfection, in particular with respect to the alarming increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the concomitant needs in private practices, nursing homes etc, the applications in personal hygiene—and the enticing possibility to ‘design’ plasmas as possible pharmaceutical products, employing ionic as well as molecular agents for medical treatment. The ‘delivery’ of the reactive plasma agents occurs at the gaseous level, which means that there is no need for a carrier medium and access to the treatment surface is optimal. This focus issue provides a close look at the current state of the art in Plasma Medicine with a number of forefront research articles as well as an introductory review.

History

School

  • Mechanical, Electrical and Manufacturing Engineering

Citation

MORFILL, G.E., KONG, M.G. and ZIMMERMANN, J.L., 2009. Focus on plasma medicine. review. New Journal of Physics, 11(115011), 9 pp.

Publisher

© IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publication date

2009

Notes

This article was published in the journal, New Journal of Physics, [© IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft] and is also available:- http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/11/11/115011

ISSN

1367-2630

Language

  • en

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