Plasma-inspired biomaterials

The first questions which arise when one looks at the title of this special issue are what are plasma-inspired biomaterials, and what is this Special Issue of Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics (JPhysD) all about? Peculiar as it may seem, from a philosophical point of view 'inspiration' is something that influences by idea or is a good idea that connects two at first glance opposite things—plasma and biomaterials. On the one hand, plasma as a discharge state of the gas is considered nowadays as a cutting edge tool which can manipulate objects at the atomic or molecular scale (figure 1). On the other hand, biomaterials are substances that are engineered to possess certain properties which can control the interactions with components of living systems, inducing favourable response from the biological entities, and as such can direct the course of a therapy or diagnostic procedure [1]. In this respect, plasmas can be used to initiating even more favourable or selective responses, making the biomaterials even more suitable for their interaction biological entitiesPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Nanoplatform Based on Vertical Nanographene

Self-organized graphite sheet nanostructures composed of graphene have been studied intensively. Carbon nanowalls and related sheet nanostructures are layered graphenes with open boundaries. The sheets form a self-supported network of wall structures with thicknesses in the range from a few nanometers to a few tens of nanometers, and with a high aspect ratio. The large surface area and sharp edges of carbon nanowalls could prove useful for a number of different applications. Fabrication techniques of carbon nanowalls and possible applications using carbon nanowalls as nanoplatform in the area of electrochemistry and tissue engineering have been described. Radical injection technique was successfully applied to fabricate straight and large-size monolithic carbon nanosheet. The structure of carbon nanowalls was controlled by changing the total pressure and input power. In addition, the structure of carbon nanowalls was modified by O2 plasma etching and H2O2 treatment. Using carbon nanowalls as platform would be the most promising and important application. Carbon nanowalls were used as electrode to detect several biomolecules. In addition, carbon nanowalls were oxidized by the surface treatment using atmospheric pressure plasma, and proteins such as bovine serum albumin were immobilized on these surface. Moreover, carbon nanowalls were used as scaffold for cell culturing. The dependence of the cell culturing rates and morphological changes of HeLa cells on carbon nanowall scaffolds with different densities and wettability were systematically investigated. Nanoplatform based on vertical nanographene offers great promise for providing a new class of nanostructured electrodes for electrochemical sensing, biosensing and energy conversion applications

Plasma Processes and Cancer - Special Topical Cluster of the 2nd IWPCT Meeting

(First paragraph) Although the emerging multidisciplinary field of plasma medicine has been around for nearly two decades important advances have already taken place that could one day revolutionize healthcare and the way various challenging diseases can be treated.1-3Amongst these advances the effects of low temperature plasma (LTP) on cancer cells in vitro and in vivo stand out.4-13Current cancer treatment modalities, such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy, have serious side effects and tend to lose their benefits to the patients after a while. Therefore, novel and improved therapies that can be used alone or in conjunction with other methods are always sought after by the medical community. LTP is proving to be one such possibility. Mounting experimental evidence is showing that LTP acts on cancer cells and tumors via the reactive oxygen species (ROS) and reactive nitrogen species (RNS) it produces. These chemically reactive species which include O, O2−, OH, H2O2, NO, NO2−, and NO3− exhibit strong oxidative properties and/or trigger signaling pathways in biological cells that could lead to cell death by necrosis or apoptosis. In addition, several investigators have reported that LTP targets cancer cells in a selective manner, mostly sparing their healthy counterparts. This is an important finding that can play a crucial role in the acceptance of plasma technology as a safe and hopefully successful cancer treatment modality