The activities regarding the design of the plasma sources and their characterization will be led by the Center of Plasma Science and Technology at the Ruhr University, Bochum (Germany). This Center of Excellence is the largest agglomeration of plasma physics at the academic level in Europe (10 professors in plasma physics with in total 200 coworkers). A broad expertise exists in all relevant plasma diagnostic methods as well as in plasma modelling. The Center has also already been involved in several sterilization project using plasma discharges.

Complimentary to this expertise the capabilities for testing the biological systems are covered by the microbiological partners. The Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy, has, among others, a team of international reputation for pyrogene detection and has been involved in the past 4 years in 2 large EU and national projects on sterilization. The Fraunhofer institute in Munich, Germany, has a broad expertise on the analysis of plasma induced changes to microorganisms. They are equipped with a P2 lab, which allows them to investigate also hazardous biological systems. Finally the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA) contributes large facilities dedicated to prion research, corresponding to laboratories (300 m2) and animal facilities (1000 m2 for primates and rodents) with biosecurity level 3, one of the largest in Europe.

The consortium is completed by a small and medium sized company ACXYS, Grenoble, France, which supplies the project with atmospheric pressure plasma sources. ACXYS provides a new and emerging technology with great hopes for the future. If successful, these types of atmospheric plasma sources are most attractive for the various field applications related to decontamination in security relevant environments.

These complementarities of the research profiles of the individual partners form the basis of a fruitful and stimulating collaboration and is the key for a successful development of plasma discharges as decontamination devices for various biological systems.

• Prof. Dr. A. von Keudell, Faculty of Physics and Astronomie
  
• Prof. Dr. P. Awakowicz, Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
  

The Center for Plasma Science and Technology (CPST) at the Ruhr-University Bochum (RUB) is specialised in plasma and surfaces physics as well as in plasma engineering and encompasses 10 professors specialized in plasma physics. From this center, the institute ‘plasma technology’ within the electrical engineering faculty and the group ‘reactive plasmas’ within the physics faculty will participate directly in the project. Their experience encompasses in-situ ellipsometry, infrared spectroscopy and treatment of surfaces with plasma discharges. The groups consist of 15 researchers with strong activities in plasma and plasma surface interactions. In recent years expertise in the field of plasma technology particularly with regard to plasma sterilisation and depyrogenisation has been acquired. Biomedical aspects of implants and the treatment of bioresorbable thermolabile materials are the main focus of this group. The group has been involved in three national projects in the field of aseptic treatment of food packaging and biomedical applications of plasma discharges in cooperation with many companies from the food technology branch. Ruhr University is the project coordinator.

The resources of RUB are composed of three ICP plasma setups, one microwave setup for bottle treatment, one CCP plasma setup and a particle beam experiment. As diagnostics, several plasma monitors and mass spectrometers, in-situ ellipsometry, infrared spectroscopy, emission spectroscopy and several Langmuir probe systems are available. This equipment is operated and maintained by permanent staff and several technicians. The budget of the groups for maintenance of the experiment is 50k€ per year. This equipment is ideally suited to perform the task of development of plasma sources and their characterization. The present project is a main activity of the Center of Excellence CPST and represents a continuation of preceding national projects on plasma sterilization.

• Mr. Joachim Wunderlich
  

The Fraunhofer Institut für Verfahrenstechnik und Verpackungstechnik (Fraunhofer Institute for Process Engineering and Packaging)(FhIVV) is a research center specialised in process and packaging engineering and technology. The aseptic group with 5 researchers and 10 technicians has long term experience in preparing, analysing and evaluating biosensors in order to investigate sterilisation and depyrogenisation processes. In the last five years this group was involved in different plasma sterilisation projects as the microbiology partner for research and university groups as well as for industry. Modern microbiological standard investigations like polymerase chain reaction are also part of the activities. Further more investigations have been started recently to clarify strong damages of different dell components such as holes in cell walls and membranes and strand breaks of DNA. Other groups of the institute have very much experience in evaluation of material integrity (packaging materials).

The resources of FhIVV consists of several completely equipped microbiological laboratories, allowed by law to handle P2 organisms. The microbiological group is specialized in several surface decontamination methods and in creating bioindicators for various decontamination processes with different microorganisms and biomolecules. The present project represents a continuation of preceding national projects on plasma sterilization. The labs are operated and maintained by permanent staff (scientists and technicians) The equipment is ideally suited to perform the task of development of innovative decontamination methods including the required bioindicators for evaluation the efficiency.

• Dr. Francois Rossi
  

The Joint Research Centre ISPRA (JRC), through its Institute for Health and Consumer Protection (IHCP) is specialised in the plasma engineering field with a strong activity in NanoBiotechnologies, biosensors and surface characterisation. It encompasses a group of 20 researchers from 3 institutes active in the field of health, physico chemistry and biology. JRC has been active in the field of plasma sterilisation and plasma biological systems interaction in the past 4 years and scientific coordinator of a FP5 project on plasma sterilisation (Project G1RD-CT-1999-00137 Steriplas). The biology group has an international status in the field of pyrogen studies and has developed a new test based on whole blood which has a much better sensitivity than the rabbit or LAL tests.

The present project is at the core of the activities of the Bio-Materials and Systems Unit of IHCP and corresponds to its mission to develop systems and processes ensuring the protection and safety of the EU citizen. The project is also a continuation of the project STERIPLAS which was carried out from 1999 to 2003. At the same time, other research activities are implemented on similar topics for the benefit of Health institution of several EU countries. It fits also in the emerging issue of public security, linked to the fight against bioterrorism.

The project will be carried out in 2 Units of the IHCP, namely BioMaterials and System Unit (BMS: surface characterisation, plasma surface interaction, plasma processes optimisation) and European Centre for validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM) for the biology part and pyrogen analysis.

BMS Unit has a total staff of 35 persons. The Unit has several ICP’s, 1 Microwave plasma source and 1 atmospheric plasma sources that are used for sterilisation. Characterisation of the surfaces is made by AFM, ToF SIMS, XPS, Imaging ellipsometry and FTIR. The institute has also access to the major NMR installations in EU for protein analysis. 19 technicians, students and researchers are now working on surface characterisation and plasma interaction in the frame of the Institutional project: NanoBiotechnology for Life Science.

• Dr. Jean-Phillipe Deslys
  

The Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique (CEA) is a major European research organisation whose laboratory has been involved from the very beginning in the study of pathogen proteins and prions. The laboratory has been at the origin of the development of one of the tests validated and currently used for systematic diagnosis of BSE and is a reference laboratory for the study of prions based diseases at the EU level. CEA is coordinator of the NoE Neuroprion that involves more than 80% of the main public European research teams involved in the prion field. CEA, which possesses the security level adapted installations, will mainly focus on inactivation studies of prion by plasma discharges based on in vitro and in vivo studies, the latest encompassing adapted scrapie in hamster and BSE in mice. In parallel, CEA will also participate in inactivation studies on other high-resistant pathogen such as bacillus anthracis.

The resources of CEA consists of Level 3-security laboratories and animal care facilities dedicated to prion manipulation. All the equipment is available for biochemical analysis of PrPres (the specific biomarker of prion diseases) by ELISA, western blotting and immunohistochemistry, and in vivo experiment. This equipment is operated and maintained by permanent staff and several technicians. The budget of the groups for maintenance is 700 k€ per year. This equipment is ideally suited to perform the task of analysis of plasma effect on prion.

• Dr. Thierry Sindzingre
  

ACXYS (ACXYS) is an innovative company dedicated to the design, the manufacturing and the marketing of plasma equipment working at atmospheric pressure and low temperature for surface treatment. Focused on our proprietary and unique technology ACXYS proposes different processes on all kind of objects (flat, 3D, tube wire, foam, web,...) Typical applications range from surface treatment to improve cleaning, wettability or adhesion to coating with organic materials on all kinds of substrates. Low temperature processes are available for thermal sensitive substrates.

ACXYS operates a Research and development platform in its facility in Grenoble with full industrial resources for designing, improving and testing new plasma sources, specialized processes and advanced power supplies. These resources are operated by skilled engineers and technicians. The overall cost of this activity is about 125 k€/year.