Atomic scale simulations for a better understanding of cancer treatment by plasmas.

Atmospheric pressure plasmas are gaining increasing interest for biomedical applications, like sterilization, wound treatment, dental treatment, blood coagulation, and especially cancer treatment. In the latter case, plasmas have demonstrated to give very promising results, both in vitro and in vivo, and are able to attack a wide range of cancer cell lines without damaging healthy cells. However, the underlying mechanisms are not yet fully understood. I will therefore perform atomic scale simulations to study the interaction mechanisms of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS, RNS) formed in the plasma with biomolecules, present in eukaryotic cells, which play a role in cancer (treatment). More specifically, I will apply classical molecular dynamics and density functional based tight binding simulations, and I will study three types of biomolecules, which play a crucial role in cancer (treatment): (1) a phospholipid bilayer (PLB) as model system for the cell membrane, (2) a part of a DNA string and (3) peptides, as a model system for proteins. I will investigate how the ROS and RNS interact with these biomolecules, which reaction products are formed, and how this can lead to apoptosis (cell death). This research will contribute to a better understanding of the role of plasmas in cancer treatment.

Keywords:MOLECULAR DYNAMICS, CANCER THERAPY, PLASMA CHEMISTRY, PLASMA

Disciplines:Applied mathematics in specific fields, Classical physics, Physics of gases, plasmas and electric discharges, Medicinal and biomolecular chemistry, Molecular and cell biology, Plant biology, Systems biology, Biophysics