Applied Sciences Webinar | The Basics of Plasma Medicine and Its Biomedical Applications
Part of the Applied Sciences Webinar series
21 Feb 2023, 10:00 (CET)
Plasma medicine, Plasma Treated Liquids, Plasma Biological Applications, Plasma Produced Species
Welcome from the Chairs
10th Applied Sciences Webinar
The Basics of Plasma Medicine and Its Biomedical Applications
In this webinar, we will give an overview of the basics of cold atmospheric plasma, an emerging multiagent technology and multimodal therapy with several potential clinical applications at the interface between different research fields. Physics, chemists, engineers, and life sciences researchers are welcome to participate to find out more about the promising field of plasma medicine, with a special focus on oral oncology.
Date: 21 February 2023
Time: 10:00 am CET | 4:00 am EST | 5:00 pm CST Asia
Webinar ID: 826 5177 1009
Webinar Secretariat: applsci.webinar@mdpi.com
Chairs
Department of Medical, Oral and Biotechnological Sciences, G. d’Annunzio University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Vittoria Perrotti is an Associate Professor in Science of Health Professions and Applied Medical Technologies at University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. Her scientific activity is focused on translational studies for the treatment of oral diseases with advanced technologies and biomaterials, and has led to about 200 research articles, 100 proceedings, several presentations in national and international congresses. Her research has been featured from the beginning by a strongly interdisciplinary and curiosity-driven approach, which allowed her to carry out innovative research efforts at the interface between different disciplines, such as oral pathology, materials science, implantology, oral surgery, histology, cellular and molecular biology, and micro/nanotechnologies. Recently she has been founded by NextGenerationEU and PNRR under the program Boost for Interdisciplinarity, University of Chieti-Pescara, as PI for a project on “Cold atmospheric plasma therapy to target head and neck tumours by a multimodal approach (COCKTAIL).”
Institute of Nanotechnology (CNR‐NANOTEC), National Research Council, Bari, Italy
Eloisa Sardella (Catania 1975) is a researcher at CNR- Institute of Nanotechnologies (CNR-NANOTEC). Since 2003 she is the leading scientist of a group composed of researchers of both CNR and University of Bari working with non-equilibrium plasma processes (low and atmospheric pressure plasma) for deposition, etching and sputtering of 2D and 3D materials with applications in the fields of biomedicine and agrifood. Since 2013 she worked in the area of research dealing with the application of direct and indirect atmospheric plasma processing of living cells and liquid solutions for therapeutical purposes (Macrosectors PE and LS). Eloisa Sardella co-authored at least 70 scientific papers published in peer-reviewed international journals. She is a member of the International Advisory Board of the journal “Plasma Processes and Polymers” and a member of the Editorial Board of the journals “plasma medicine” and “Coatings”. She delivered at least 15 invited lectures and one plenary speech at International Conferences dealing with Plasma, materials and biomedical applications.
Invited Speakers
Escola d'Enginyeria Barcelona Est (EEBE), Biomaterials, Biomechanics & Tissue Engineering Group, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Cristina Canal Barnils (Barcelona 1977) is Associate professor at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC),head of the PlasmaMedLab: Plasmas for BioMedical Applications Laboratory and of the Medical Technologies: Biomaterials & Tissue Engineering research group at theIRSJD. Before joining UPC, she did different research stages at pre and postdoctoral level in different national and international research centres. She has participated and lead a number of research projects, as well as technology transfer projects in the areas of Textile materials, Biomaterials and Cold Plasmas. Her research has led to above 60 publications, and several invited conferences. Her research has been recognized with different awards, including the L’Oreal-Unesco fellowship “For Young Women in Science” (2012), the “2018 Early Career Award in Plasma Medicine“ and the ICREA Acadèmia 2020. Her interests are focused on cold plasmas for biomedical applications, particularly: i) Surface modification of biomaterials to control parameters such as adhesion or biological behaviour; ii) Control of drug release from biomaterials; and iii) Therapeutical appications of cold plasmas, for instance, in bone cancers. She is currently ERC APACHE project Starting Grant leader in a project in the field of atmospheric pressure plasma therapy, her main axis of research being currently focused in the atmospheric pressure plasma therapy of bone cancer treatment in combination with biomaterials.
Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
Dr. Francesco Tampieri got his PhD in Molecular Sciences in the electron paramagnetic resonance group of the Department of Chemical Sciences, University of Padova, Italy carrying out a project focused on the study of graphene-like materials by means of electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and computational methods. After the PhD, he obtained a 3-years Post-doc position in the Plasma Chemistry group, Department of Chemical Sciences of the same University. His research was focused on the chemical characterization of plasma/liquid systems and the application of different plasma sources for water treatment and food sterilization. Currently, Dr. Tampieri is Postdoctoral researcher in the PlasmaMED lab team at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and his research is focused on the detection and quantification of plasma produced species in different media of biological interest and on the study of the interaction between reactive species and biopolymers. His expertise includes physical chemistry (spectroscopy) and plasma chemistry, competence in all major techniques for chemical analyses (HPLC chromatography coupled with UV-Vis and MS detectors, gas chromatography, ion chromatography, UV-Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, EPR and NMR spectroscopy, IR spectroscopy), ROS and RNS detection and quantification, chemical kinetics and computational modelling.
Marwa Balaha graduated from the faculty of Pharmacy, Tanta University, Egypt, with excellent grade honor degree. As a result of her academic excellence, she was selected by the College of Pharmacy to work as a teaching assistant and to join a master program (5 years) in Drug design and pharmaceutical chemistry. Through her master research, she gained a wide experience in Medicinal Chemistry and Drug Design expecially in relation to ligand-and structure-based rational drug design. As a consequence, she was selected by the Faculty of Pharmacy, Kafrelsheikh University, Egypt to work as Assistant lecturer at the Pharmaceutical Chemistry department in teaching Practical courses of Organic, Pharmaceutical and Forensic Chemistry and Drug Design. Marwa Balaha was nominated as one of the 2018 top exceptional winners chosen from a pool of outstanding scientists from Egypt to receive the Women in science (FWIS) fellowship awarded by L’Oréal – UNESCO for PhD students. After a period as fellowship the University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy working in the development of lipopeptide cytotoxic agents, since 2019 she is a PhD student at the Department of Pharmacy, d'Annunzio University of Chieti– Pescara. During these thee years of PhD, she spent a period at Medical University of Lublin, Poland investigating the production of bioactive agents-enriched bone scaffolds for regenerative medicine, and a period at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain testing bioactive agents in combination with cold atmospheric plasma and evaluating their effects in in vitro conditions. She is a working group member of the COST Action CA20114 PlasTHER “Therapeutic Applications of Cold Plasmas”.
Department of Pharmacy, University of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy
Viviana di Giacomo is an Associate Professor in Human Anatomy at University G. d’Annunzio of Chieti-Pescara, Chieti, Italy. She has been studying for more than 20 years the molecular mechanisms at the basis of cellular response to exogen factors, namely antitumoral drugs, neuroprotective and antioxidant products, natural extracts and biomaterials. Cytotoxicity, apoptosis, cell cycle, cytokine release, protein expression, molecular signaling, morphology, cell organelle modifications are some of the numerous parameters that she evaluated in different experimental models. Prof. di Giacomo coordinates a research group and holds a wide numbers of collaborations with colleagues from different fields of expertise: pathology, pharmaceutical chemistry, dentistry, biochemistry, analytical chemistry, engineering, pharmacology, biology, pharmaceutical botany. Her interdisciplinary research is actually focused on investigating the molecular biological mechanisms at the basis of cold plasma effects on tumoral and normal cell lines. She is member of the research group which has recently been founded by NextGenerationEU and PNRR under the program Boost for Interdisciplinarity, University of Chieti-Pescara, for the project “COld atmospheric plasma therapy to target head and neck Tumours by A multImodaL approach (COCKTAIL)”.
Webinar Content
On Tuesday, 21 February 2023, MDPI and the Journal Applied Sciences organized the 10th webinar on Applied Sciences , entitled "The Basics of Plasma Medicine and Its Biomedical Applications".
Much progress has been made since plasma medicine emerged in the mid-1990s with pioneer experiments showing strong bactericidal effects of low temperature atmospheric pressure plasma (LTP). Over the years research expanded and it tooks only about 25 years to develop a basic scientific understanding of the physical and biochemical effects of LTP on eukaryotic cells. Lately, a growing attention in the scientific community has been raised by the scientific evidence of LTP efficacy for cancer treatment, and to stimulate wound healing, blood coagulation and disinfection. Even more recently, the medical field has been attracted by plasma treated liquids (PTL) usage which enables to reach body districts where plasma direct approach is difficult (i.e. internal tumours), thus significantly expanding the scope of LTP potential application.
The invited speakers of this webinar offered an interesting overview of the basics of plasma processing and production of PTL. Some prospective applications of PTL in oncology, with a special focus on head and neck cancer, were highlighted in the webinar, demonstrating that we are not so far from the application of these liquids as alternative therapies. Some aspects of the mechanisms of production still need to be fully understood and standardization remain an important issue to be further investigated.
The presentations were followed by a Q&A and a discussion, moderated by the Chairs. The webinar was offered via Zoom and required registration to attend. Please note that there is no recording available on Sciforum for this webinar. In order to stay updated on the next webinars on Applied Sciences, be sure to sign up for our newsletter by clicking on “Subscribe” at the top of the page.
Program
Speaker/Presentation |
Time in CET |
Dr. Vittoria Perrotti Chair Introduction |
10:00 - 10:10 am |
Dr. Cristina Canal An Introduction to Plasma Medicine |
10:10 - 10:30 am |
Dr. Francesco Tampieri Plasma Treated Liquids for Biological Applications: Insights on the Underlying Chemistry |
10:30 - 10:50 am |
Dr. Marwa Balaha Antitumoral Effects of Cape Derivatives in Combination With Direct Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treatment |
10:50 - 11:10 am |
Dr. Viviana di Giacomo Indirect Cold Atmospheric Plasma Treatment of Head and Neck Cell Lines: Preliminary Results and Technical Aspects Toward Standardization |
11:10 - 11:30 am |
Q&A Session |
11:30 - 11:50 am |
Closing of Webinar |
11:50 am - 12:00 pm |