Collaborative Research:Fundamental Science of Low Temperature Plasma-Biological Material Interactions

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This award is made in response to a proposal submitted to and reviewed under the NSF/DOE Partnership in Basic Plasma Science and Engineering joint solicitation NSF 09-596. The award provides funds to support undergraduate participation in the overall research effort, which is being funded separately by the DOE under contract to University of Maryland (Grant DE-FG02-10ER55077). The proposed research objective is to establish an atomistic understanding of interactions of low temperature plasma (LTP) with prototypical biological assays to achieve biological deactivation. While LTP treatment of biological cells and living tissue at both low and atmospheric pressure has been demonstrated as a versatile method to directly alter biological function of living matter in desirable ways, important scientific knowledge gaps exist and preclude rational development of these procedures. These gaps include understanding of ion-, energetic photon or reactive neutral initiated processes, changes in surface/near-surface properties of the treated biological entities and correlation with altered biological function, and lack of theoretical models capable to assist with interpretation of experimental observations and formulation of a consistent framework. Addressing these knowledge gaps requires an interdisciplinary team of investigators. The combined expertise available to this project includes biological assay methodologies, plasma-surface treatments and in-situ surface characterization, beam-surface interactions and molecular dynamics simulations of plasma/biological materials interactions, and interactions between lipid A/LPS and LBP at the atomic scale simulations using all-atom molecular mechanical force fields molecular dynamics simulations of proteins. The current team is thus positioned to significantly advance the scientific understanding of LTP treatment of biological matter for biological deactivation. Successful completion of the project will provide the scientific foundation for LTP-based disinfection of medical instrumentation, packaging for food and medicines, other surfaces, and decontamination of biological warfare agents. The principles under study in this project are relevant to all applications of LTP to biological systems, cells and tissue, including the growing field of plasma medicine. The interdisciplinary character of this research provides unique educational opportunities for the students and faculty The NSF support of undergraduate participation adds a broader educational impact through the early-year training of students by introducing them to scientific research as a possible career path.