Non-Thermal Plasma Application in Control of Infection and Biofilm

Friday, April 25, 2014

4:00 PM-5:30 PM

Suresh Joshi, MD, MSc, PhD, director of surgical site infections and bacterial pathogenesis in the department of surgery, College of Medicine, Drexel University, will discuss how there is a general opinion that direct application of non-thermal plasma on living animals or human skin may cause damage. Recently, Dr. Joshi and his team developed a method wherein fluid can be treated / activated by non-thermal plasma to transmit plasma, which can be applied to delicate surfaces and the living tissues. Dr. Joshi and his team use a non-equilibrium dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma technique that operates at normal room air and does not require special gases or air current (patented by Drexel University). So far, they have successfully applied plasma activated-solution for inactivation of bacterial pathogens, including multi-drug resistant (MDR) isolates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, S. epidermidis, Klebsiella pneumonia, Escherichia coli, and virulent fungi such as Candida albicans and C. glabrata. Dr. Joshi and his team also used plasma treatment to induce antimicrobial properties in alginate gel dressing (Poor et al., Surgical Infections, 2013, in press), but underlying chemical changes are yet to be understood. Dr. Joshi and his team will also study the relevant underlying mechanisms of bacterial inactivation using E. coli as a model organism. In this seminar, Dr. Joshi will discuss the proof-of-concept approaches of plasma-mediated disinfection and will explore the mechanisms of oxidative stress (which is mounted in E. coli during exposure to a plasma-activated NAC solution) and changes in prototype E. coli cellular protein, membrane lipids, and DNA, as well as differential gene responses. For more info, please visit: www.biomed.drexel.edu.

Contact Information

Banu Onaral
215-895-2247
banu.onaral@drexel.edu