I-Corps: Cold Plasma Cancer Therapy

冷大气等离子体（CAP）是一种新型等离子体，在医学和纳米技术方面具有巨大的潜力。CAP最有前途的应用之一是癌症治疗。CAP选择性地影响癌细胞并导致肿瘤消融。该项目的成功实施将对国民经济的许多重要部门产生巨大影响，包括医疗设备和科学设备。这个I-Corps项目将成为血浆医学和医疗设备商业化领域的本科和研究生教育的绝佳工具。这个I-Corps小组将通过与乔治华盛顿大学的相应学生组织密切合作，共同努力使妇女和代表性不足的少数民族学生参与这个项目。本研究的根本意义在于探索CAP的医学作用，特别是CAP与肿瘤的相互作用。为此目的，将采用各种诊断仪器以及化学和生物传感器。该项目的技术部分将侧重于开发用于临床试验的原型系统。在I-Corps项目期间，除了客户发现之外，该团队还将专注于构建一个原型设备，该设备将产生冷等离子体以及可用于将CAP输送到组织的消耗性探针。该原型装置将在各种细胞系上进行体外测试。此外，研究小组还将利用裸鼠开展一系列新的动物研究。该团队还打算与联邦药物管理局就批准该设备临床使用的必要步骤展开讨论。

Cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) is a new and fascinating type of plasmas having tremendous potential in medicine and nanotechnology. One of the most promising applications of CAP is the cancer therapy. CAP selectively affect cancer cells and lead to tumor ablation. Successful conduction of this project would have tremendous impact on many important sectors of the national economy including medical equipment, and scientific devices. This I-Corps project will serve as an excellent vehicle for undergraduate and graduate education in the field of plasma medicine and commercialization of medical devices. This I-Corps team will make a concerted effort to involve women and under-represented minority students in this project by working closely with corresponded student organizations at the George Washington University.The fundamental significance of the proposed work is in exploring medical action of CAP, in particular, CAP interaction with tumor. To this end a wide spectrum of diagnostic instrumentations and chemical and biological sensors will be employed. Technical part of the project will be focused on development of a prototype system for clinical trials. During the I-Corps program, in addition to customer discovery, the team will be focused on building a prototype device that will generate cold plasma as well as consumable probe that will be used to deliver CAP to tissue. The prototype device will be tested in vitro on various cell lines. In addition the team will initiate new series of animal study using nude mice. The team also intends to initiate discussions with Federal Drug Administration on the necessary steps to approve this device for clinical use.