Highest honour for Plasma Professor
If you Google ‘plasma’, you’ll get lots of links selling you the latest TVs. But plasma medicine is set to have a far bigger impact on our lives in the future than that: it is the fastest growing area in the general field of low-temperature plasma science and technology, the underpinning technology for the semiconductor fabrication, coating, and the lighting and display industries.
And one man at Loughborough, Professor Michael Kong, is working right at its heart, applying the technology for a range of medical benefits which could revolutionise patient care and clinical practice. The main thrust of this new field includes the exploitation of near room-temperature gas plasmas for a number of electrically triggered therapies including blood coagulation, skin and wound disinfection, wound healing, cancer therapies, and minimally invasive surgery. Gas plasmas also offer a new route to addressing the growing concern of drug resistance.
In recognition of his important contributions to the field in general and in particular to our knowledge of low-temperature gas plasmas over the last ten years Professor Kong has been awarded the inaugural International Plasma Medicine Society Prize. His achievements include the discovery of plasma-induced degradation of proteins and prion-like proteins, the identification of the important role of reactive oxygen species of plasmas particularly atomic oxygen, and the invention of 1D and 2D arrays of cold atmospheric plasma jets that are used for skin disinfection and wound healing.
The new biennial award was presented to Michael at the 3rd International Conference on Plasma Medicine by Prof K D Weltmann, President of the International Society for Plasma Medicine and Director of the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, Greifswald, Germany. The other two recipients were Professor Alex Fridman of Drexel University, Philadelphia and Professor Mounir Laroussi of Old Dominion University, Virginia.
Commenting on being chosen for the very first award, Michael said he felt exceptionally honoured and fortunate to be recognized as one of plasma medicine’s pioneers and founding fathers. “The field may one day solve the problem of antibiotic resistance that threatens the only medical defence we have against infection. At present infectious diseases are responsible for more than 25% of health-related death.”
Further reading: Article in 'the view' ontackling the superbug with plasma.