NE 542 Biomedical Applications of Plasma

3 Credit Hours

Introduction to plasma and atmospheric pressure plasmas, plasma sources for biomedical applications, plasma components and their mode of action, impact of plasma on eukaryotic cells, safety aspects, plasmas in medicine: wound healing, dermatological applications, cancer treatment, benefits and limitations. Plasma agriculture, introduction to plant biology

Course Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to describe different atmospheric pressure plasmas and their possible applications in plasma medicine and plasma agriculture. Students will have gained a basic knowledge of eukaryotic cells and the biology of wound healing and cancer treatment, as well as plant biology.

Course Outline

We will talk about Atmospheric Pressure Plasmas, plasma sources for medical applications and the components and modes of action of plasma. After a short introduction to plasma chemistry and plasma-liquid chemistry, we will look at the impact of plasma on eukaryotic cells. Safety Aspects of plasma devices will be discussed and the students will work on a “safety project”. We conclude plasma medicine with wound healing and cancer treatment as two treatment examples for plasma in medicine. In the second part we will focus on Plasma Agriculture. After a brief introduction we will learn about plant biology and plasma sources used for plasma agriculture.

Textbooks

The class is not based on a textbook. There are a few textbooks available that are recommended for further reading (but not necessary to pass the class), details will be provided through Moodle.

Updated 6/21/2023