The newest high-tech tool for treating certain cancers may be an incredibly brief pulse of electricity directed at cancerous tissue, according to Karl Schoenbach, eminent scholar of electrical and computer engineering at Old Dominion.

He is collaborating with Stephen Beebe and Stephen Buescher, professors of pediatrics at the Center for Pediatric Research, a joint program of Eastern Virginia Medical School and Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters, on the extension of a process called electroporation therapy, or EPT.

The EPT process involves injecting a tumor with chemotherapeutic drugs and sending short electrical pulses into the tumor cells via needle electrodes. The pulse causes the cell membranes to become more porous, in turn allowing the injected drugs to kill the tumor cells.

"We cut electricity into extremely short pulses, about 10-billionths of a second," said Schoenbach.

Whereas EPT uses electroporation, which destroys the outer shell of a cell, the scientists' goal was to use ultrashort pulses to get to the cell's nucleus, the control center from which all reactions stem.

"We predicted that if the pulse is short enough, it will penetrate the cell membrane and affect the nucleus," Schoenbach explained. "The hope is that we may be able to selectively destroy specific cells without destroying everything around them."

The inherent cancer application lies in the premise that rapidly growing cells, such as tumors, can be targeted without harming stationary cells. While the scientists are still gathering results, they have already applied for a joint patent.

The Air Force's Office of Scientific Research, which is funding this study, is interested in their research for its application to bacterial decontamination, particularly to destroy airborne bacteria that would be released if a country engaged in bacterial warfare.

-Tiffany Capuano