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

该奖项是对提交给NSF/美国能源部基础等离子体科学与工程伙伴关系联合征集NSF 09-596的提案的回应。该奖项为本科生参与整体研究工作提供资金，该研究工作由美国能源部根据与马里兰大学的合同(Grant DE-FG02-10ER55077)单独提供资金。提出的研究目标是建立对低温等离子体(LTP)与原型生物测试相互作用的原子学理解，以实现生物失活。虽然在低压和大气压下对生物细胞和活组织进行LTP处理已被证明是一种以理想的方式直接改变生物物质生物功能的通用方法，但存在重要的科学知识差距，阻碍了这些程序的合理发展。这些差距包括对离子、高能光子或反应性中性启动过程的理解，处理生物实体表面/近表面性质的变化以及与改变的生物功能的相关性，以及缺乏能够帮助解释实验观察和制定一致框架的理论模型。填补这些知识差距需要一支跨学科的调查团队。该项目的综合专业知识包括生物分析方法、等离子体-表面处理和原位表面表征、等离子体/生物材料相互作用的束-表面相互作用和分子动力学模拟，以及在原子尺度上脂类A/脂多糖和LBP之间的相互作用，使用全原子分子机械力场分子动力学模拟蛋白质。因此，目前的团队定位于显著推进LTP处理生物物质以进行生物灭活的科学理解。该项目的成功完成将为基于LTP的医疗器械消毒、食品和药品包装、其他表面以及生物战剂的净化提供科学基础。该项目中正在研究的原理与LTP在生物系统、细胞和组织中的所有应用相关，包括不断增长的血浆医学领域。这项研究的跨学科性质为学生和教职员工提供了独特的教育机会，NSF对本科生参与的支持通过向学生介绍科学研究作为一条可能的职业道路，通过早期培训增加了更广泛的教育影响。

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.