Advanced characterization of portable atmospheric pressure plasma jet devices especially for applications in medicine and dentistry

• Grant number: 21/14391-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Post-doctor
• Start date: June 01, 2022
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics - Physics of Fluids, Plasma Physics and Electrical Discharge
• Principal Investigator: Konstantin Georgiev Kostov
• Grantee: Fellype do Nascimento
• Supervisor: Torsten Gerling
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Engenharia (FEG). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Guaratinguetá. Guaratinguetá , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP), Germany
• Associated to the scholarship: 20/09481-5 - Applications of non-thermal atmospheric plasmas in Dentistry: from the bench to the clinic, BP.PD

Abstract

Atmospheric pressure plasma jets (APPJs) have been successfully tested in clinical trials in medicine and dentistry with very encouraging results. This has led to the development of APPJ systems that are nowadays commercially available. The INP-Greifswald has been one of the leading institutions worldwide responsible for developing the well-known APPJ family called kINPen® with the model kINPen®MED being especially designed and complied for medical applications. The FAPESP thematic project 2019/05856-7 that is being executed in a collaboration between UNESP and ITA has as principal goal the development of a portable APPJ device suitable for dentistry applications. Currently, an advanced prototype of a remote APPJ has been tested presenting positive results for bacterial inactivation. Besides the application in dentistry, recently the FAPESP project has also embraced a new challenge involving the use of APPJ for treatment of tracheal implants. This was an urgent necessity that arose due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the intubation of many hospitalized patients with a lof of them needing a tracheal implant, which is subject to bacterial colonization leading eventually to implant failing. This issue can be remedy by plasma treatment of the implant inner wall, preventing biofilm formation and increasing the implant lifetime. However, before allowing the use of the APPJ device being developed by UNESP in clinical trials on patients it is required to perform an extensive device characterization, checking specially for the patient and operator safety in the handling as well as in the use for clinical trials and finally verifying its efficacy on the intended indication. Since the INP-Greifswald has overwhelming experience in this type of characterization required for any APPJ device aimed for medical use, they do have vast expertise as well as sophisticated experimental facilities that would be of great help for the successful development of the FAPESP project. Thus, both main project goals under study will benefit from a postdoctoral fellowship at INP-Greifswald. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DO NASCIMENTO, FELLYPE; LEAL, BRUNO SILVA; QUADE, ANTJE; KOSTOV, KONSTANTIN GEORGIEV. Different Radial Modification Profiles Observed on APPJ-Treated Polypropylene Surfaces according to the Distance between Plasma Outlet and Target. POLYMERS, v. 14, n. 21, p. 17-pg., 2022-11-01. (20/09481-5, 19/05856-7, 21/14391-8)

DO NASCIMENTO, FELLYPE; GERLING, TORSTEN; KOSTOV, KONSTANTIN GEORGIEV. On the gas heating effect of helium atmospheric pressure plasma jet. PHYSICA SCRIPTA, v. 98, n. 5, p. 15-pg., 2023-05-01. (19/05856-7, 21/14391-8)