ODU, EVMS open Center for Bioelectrics
By Jennifer Mullen
The Center for Bioelectrics – a collaborative research effort between Old Dominion University and Eastern Virginia Medical School that may someday unlock a cure for cancer, among other groundbreaking discoveries – opened Nov. 24 in the city of Norfolk’s Public Health Building. “The Center for Bioelectrics is confirmation of Old Dominion’s role as an international leader in this new field and exemplifies the importance and possibilities of partnerships among Hampton Roads institutions,” said President Roseann Runte.
Funded in part by a $500,000 federal construction grant administered by the Health Resources and Services Administration with assistance from the ODU Research Foundation, the first phase of the center encompasses 8,500 square feet on the fifth floor of the Public Health Building.
The center was established to increase scientific knowledge and understanding of how intense, pulsed electromagnetic fields and cold ionized gases interact with biological cells, and to apply this knowledge to the development of medical diagnostics and therapeutics and environmental decontamination. It is the first use of this technology in medicine and biology in the world, according to Karl Schoenbach, eminent scholar of electrical and computer engineering in the Frank Batten College of Engineering and Technology and director of the new center.
At the core of the center is research by Schoenbach and Dr. Stephen Beebe of EVMS. They, together with Dr. Stephen Buescher, also from EVMS, discovered that high-intensity electric surges for brief periods of time kill tumor cells. Thanks to a $5 million Multi-University Research Initiative (MURI) grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, they have expanded their work to explore the effect of electromagnetic fields on proteins and genes and to determine the parameters that promote cell growth or stimulate programmed cell death.
The project leaders also expect to recruit top faculty and exceptional graduate students, as well as support regional, national and international programs. ODU’s Mounir Laroussi, an international expert in cold plasmas, recently joined the center as a faculty member. Additionally, two tenured faculty, two visiting faculty, six international postdoctoral fellows and 14 graduate students are conducting research there.
The MURI grant consortium, which is led by Old Dominion, includes ODU faculty Ravindra Joshi and Nancy Xu as well as scientists at EVMS, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Washington University, University of Texas Health Science Center and the University of Wisconsin.
In addition to discovering new methods for treating cancers, the center’s researchers could find new methods to modify the way cells respond to drugs, create non-invasive treatments to rid food, liquids and air of contaminants, and help the military understand how the use of radiation affects military personnel.
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