Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Development of a plasma device for rapid disinfection of contaminated hospital materials: Hospital‐Use Plasma Unit (HUP‐Unit)." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Laboratory for Microbiology, Parasitology and Hygiene (LMPH), Laboratory Experimental Medicine and Pediatrics (LEMP), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "The SARS‐CoV‐2 pandemic has exposed how unprepared our society was in preventing the propagation of highly infectious diseases, protecting the healthcare providers and patients, and efficiently organizing the logistics, while managing large numbers of patients. For the past two years, hospitals have battled to mitigate the spread of the virus in their facilities, a challenge that included the need to daily dispose of thousands of unused, individually‐packaged medical products that could not be disinfected with the traditional disinfection methods. On average, the Antwerp University Hospital (UZA) produced around 250,000 kg of medical waste per year. In 2021, the amounts of medical waste increased by more than 10% compared to the pre‐COVID period. Globally, the pandemic not only increased the cost for hospitals, but it also increased the generation of waste around the world by 400‐500%. Moreover, at the height of the pandemic, there was even a critical shortage of medical supplies. Therefore, this was not only an environmental and financial issue, but also a serious healthcare burden. In order to be better prepared for future pandemics, we have prepared a mission‐oriented innovation project, which responds to a specific request from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at UZA. In our IOF‐POC CREATE project here, we aim to develop a non‐thermal plasma (NTP)‐based disinfection device to rapidly eliminate viruses from unused, individually‐packaged medical products: the hospital‐use plasma unit (HUP‐unit). Our HUP‐device will utilize a completely innovative cylindrical geometry design feature with materials to be disinfected, to enhance NTP generation and contact with a large volume of material, and ensure complete, uniform treatment. Indeed, we have to design a completely novel NTP device concept, which we will categorize as a 'moving‐bed' dielectric barrier discharge (DBD). By using the individually‐packaged hospital products as part of the NTP generation mechanism, our 'moving‐bed' DBD HUP‐unit offers a scalable solution to provide rapid disinfection in the hospital. Based on our understanding of plasma dynamics and computational plasma simulations, we have developed this theoretical design, but the feasibility of creating a working prototype remains to be seen. Therefore, in this IOF‐POC CREATE project, we will produce and validate our prototype HUP‐unit in the lab. If successful, our HUP‐unit will allow us to: i) mitigate shortages in individually‐packaged medical products; ii) reduce the waste produced by healthcare facilities and associated waste management cost; iii) reduce the incidence of hospital‐acquired infections." "Towards plasma for cancer treatment: investigation of alterations in the DNA damage response due to plasma treatment in glioblastoma multiforme as tumour model." "Annemie Bogaerts" "Molecular Imaging, Pathology, Radiotherapy & Oncology (MIPRO), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT)" "Recently, a new approach based on non-thermal plasma (NTP) to treat cancer cells is gaining interest in the medical field. Plasma is an ionized gas. It is a highly reactive mixture, containing electrons, ions, radicals and energetic neutrals, while still operating at room temperature. Precisely this combination of reactive species and low gas temperature makes it suitable for treating biological samples. It is suggested that the killing capacity of plasma is related to the formation of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (RONS). Moreover, previous research showed that plasma can selectively kill cancer cells over healthy cells, which is an advantage over traditional treatment methods, such as radio- and chemotherapy. Unfortunately, little is known about the actual working mechanism, or selectivity, making it difficult to convince pharmaceutical collaborators to invest in this technique and develop it into a valuable treatment option for cancer. During this research, I will investigate the anti-cancer capacity of NTP, which RONS are responsible, and how NTP alters the DNA damage response (DDR) of cancer cells. The latter is a collection of mechanisms that are activated whenever DNA damage is detected in order to repair it. This is interesting because (a) plasma is shown to induce DNA damage, and (b) it is known that the DDR of cancer cells is already partially compromised, making it a valuable oncological target. I will use a brain tumour, glioblastoma multiforme, as model." "Development of a precision clinical plasma treatment system using environmental sensing and robotic controls." "Cosmin Copot" "Center for Oncological Research (CORE), Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT), Industrial Vision Lab (InViLab)" "In the context of clinical treatment of cancers, a major challenge involves the precise delivery of therapeutic agents to the tumor while limiting off-target effects. This is true for multiple treatment modalities including radiotherapy and non-thermal plasma (NTP) therapy. Hence, the main focus of this research project is to introduce the design of a supervisory control structure into a patient-in-the-loop therapeutic application. This system will be developed by integrating 3 components: 1) environmental sensors, 2) a robotic control unit, and 3) a therapeutic device (NTP generator). Since NTP treatment is highly dependent on parameters such as treatment time, application distance, etc. a feedback approach is necessary to compensate for tumor motion induced by the patient during treatment (e.g. respiration). To this end, artificial intelligence tools, including neural networks, will be employed to model the dynamic disturbances of the tumor. The developed self-learning artificial intelligence models will be embedded within model-based controllers to predict and minimize the effect of disturbances. Performance of the control structure will be validated with real-time experiments of plasma delivery in biological systems. The proposed methodology has the potential to improve the precision and accuracy of clinical NTP treatment and consequently minimize damage to healthy tissue." "Proof-of-concept for novel combination strategies with immunotherapy to treat solid tumors." "Evelien Smits" "Plasma Lab for Applications in Sustainability and Medicine - Antwerp (PLASMANT), Center for Oncological Research (CORE)" "Cancer immunotherapy strategies leave room for improvement. Given that a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not the solution due to tumor heterogeneity, personalized therapy is the way forward. It is my mission to overcome hard-to-treat solid tumors and to push boundaries in achieving effective personalized immunotherapies. To accomplish this, the immunosuppressive nature of the tumor microenvironment needs to be overcome, allowing to significantly reduce its hampering effect on the activation and the infiltration of immune cells in tumors. My team recently demonstrated the power of certain activated immune cells to kill both cancer cells and cells of the tumor microenvironment that contribute to immunosuppression. With a view to further enhance antitumor effects, me and my team will unravel different inhibitory mechanisms that hamper antitumor immune cell responses and use these new insights to develop effective and personalized therapies that combine direct activation of immune cells with inhibition of immunosuppression. In the current 2-year project, we will gather novel tumor immunology data on 1) characterization of the tumor microenvironment, 2) interactions between tumor cells and immune cells, 3) relevant targeted treatment strategies and 4) biomarker identification; as important proofs-of-concept to further strengthen my European and consortium project applications in the near future."