This book presents an overview of the current state of research on ultrashort electric field pulses of high intensity and their use in biology and medicine. It examines in detail the most recent and exciting advances in how nanosecond and picosecond electric pulse research has grown and expanded into new areas of biology and medicine.
Further, the book specifically focuses on electric pulses in the time domain, on intracellular effects as opposed to plasma membrane electroporation, and highlights the biological and medical applications of these unique pulse effects. Since the authors were initial innovators exploring nanosecond and picosecond pulses, their unique perspectives foreshadowed directions the research took, expanding into new areas that they continue to investigate today.

Autorentext

Stephen J. Beebe studied Zoology at Ohio University, Athens. He then served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the British West Indies (19731975) teaching biology, working on soil and water conservation with 4H and diagnostic biochemistry and analysing the nutritional status of preschool children at Queen Elizabeth Hospital. As a PhD student, he purified and characterized cAMP-independent protein kinases involved in glycogen metabolism. As a Post-Doctoral Fellow and Research Associate at the Howard **Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) in Vanderbilt, he defined the roles for cAMP-dependent protein kinases (PKAs) and cAMP phosphodiesterases in regulating glycogen and lipid metabolism, insulin action, gene transcription and granulosa cell differentiation.

As a Fulbright and Marshal Scholar in Oslo, he cloned three catalytic subunits of PKA from a human testes library. He subsequently returned to the USA, serving as an Assistant Professor at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine, where he showed that apoptosis markers in sperm could be used as markers for sperm quality. He also established procedures leading to successful pre-embryo genetic diagnosis and prevention of TaySachs disease. Remaining at the Eastern Virginia Schools of Medicine (EVMS), but moving to the Departments of Pediatrics and Physiological Sciences, he defined structurefunction relationships of PKA catalytic subunits and established roles for PKA to delay apoptosis in human neutrophils.

While at EVMS and since moving to Old Dominion University (ODU), over the last two decades he has demonstrated the effects and mechanisms of action of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEFs) on biological cell structures and function as a means of modulating signal transduction and ablating cancer. He is now investigating nsPEF ablation-induced immune responses in rat liver and mouse mammary cancer. As one of the leading pioneers developing uses for nsPEFs on biological cells and tissues, he has published over 70 papers on topics related to ultrashort electric pulse effects in biology and medicine and published a total of 121 peer-reviewed manuscripts including 9 book chapters since 1980. He serves on the Editorial Board of Hepatoma Research, Journal of Nanomedicine Research, Journal of Nanomedicine & Biotherapeutic Discovery and International Journal of Nano Studies & Technology, and holds 10 bioelectric patents.

Ravi P. Joshi received the B. Tech. and M. Tech. Degrees in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in 1983, and 1985, respectively, and earned the Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from Arizona State University. In 1989, he joined Old Dominion University. He is currently a full Professor at Texas Tech University since 2015. He has been involved in research broadly encompassing modeling and simulations of charge transport, bio-electrics and bio-physics, non-equilibrium phenomena, pulsed-power and electrophysics. He was named a University Professor at Old Dominion University in 2007 and an Eminent Scholar in 2010. He has used Monte Carlo methods for simulations of charge transport in solids, liquids and gases, and more recently atomistic Molecular Dynamics techniques for cell membranes and interaction phenomena at solid surfaces. He is the author of over 350 articles, including 165 refereed journal publications. He has been a visiting scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Philips Laboratory, Motorola and NASA Goddard. He has also served as a Guest Editor for five Special Issues of the IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science in 2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014. He has also been an IEEE Distinguished Lecturer (since 2014), a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE since 2008), a Fellow of the Institute of Physics (IOP since 2014), and a Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET since 2014), and Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE since 2014). In 2010 he was elected a Fellow of IEEE for contributions to bio-electrics and simulation of cellular responses to pulsed power excitation. To date, he has a total of 6079 citations according to Google Scholar, with an h-index of 42 and i10index of 114. He has also served as reviewer for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, National Science Foundation, NSF I/UCRC, Israel Science Foundation, Agence Nationale Recherche (ANR -- France's National Research Agency) and the Czech Science Foundation (GACR), and over 20 international academic peer-reviewed journals. He was part of the organizing committee of the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science, and Chair of the Publications and Publicity Committee for I...

Inhalt
Introduction History and Fundamentals.- From Milliseconds to Picoseconds effects on cell membranes.- Simulations of membrane effects.- Pulsed power systems and Pulse Delivery Systems.- Experimental studies.- Thermal assistance.