While using cold plasma to kill cancer cells isn’t an
entirely novel concept, a team of researchers and students at South Dakota School of Mines & Technology
are exploring new ways to regulate cold plasma technology to target and kill cancer
cells while leaving healthy cells alive.
If successful, the technique would prove to be a drug-free,
minimally invasive cancer treatment that would affect the lives of millions of patients
around the world.
Plasma is ionized gas – an energetic state of matter where
some of the electrons in the outer atomic orbitals have become separated from the
atom. In other words, it’s a collection of ions and electrons no longer bound
to each other. Cold plasma is a partially ionized gas where particles possess
much higher energy.
SD Mines assistant professors Prasoon Diwakar, Ph.D., of the
mechanical engineering department, and Timothy Brenza, Ph.D., of the chemical
and biological engineering department, are overseeing the research with undergraduate
mechanical engineering students Kristen Haller and Nicole Miller. Chemical and
biological engineering PhD student Jordan Hoops and applied biological sciences
undergraduate student Taylor Bright are also contributing to the work. Bright
will be continuing the research in this area as an accelerated master’s student
in biomedical engineering.
Diwakar began researching cold plasma cance...