ODU’s Reidy Center Scientists Host 2nd World Congress on Electroporation
September 20, 2017
Scientists from Old Dominion University's Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics hosted hundreds of other scientists who came to Norfolk from over 30 countries on four continents for the second annual World Congress on Electroporation and Pulsed Electric Fields in Biology, Medicine and Food and Environmental Technologies.
The four-day event ran Sept. 24-28 at The Main Hilton Hotel in downtown Norfolk. Attendees attended presentations from many nationally and internationally-invited speakers, including researchers from the Reidy Center for Bioelectrics. In addition to the basic biology and the technology for electric pulse and gas plasma research, applications related to food, medicine and the environment were presented.
Faculty and staff from ODU participated in approximately 50 presentations at the conference. The Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics is recognized as the global leader in this area of research. ODU's bioelectrics work recently generated more than $41 million for the University and its researchers.
"The obvious application of this research is medical, whether for cancer treatment, wound healing or cardio vascular applications." said Richard Heller, a professor and Eminent Scholar at the Reidy Center. "However, non-medical applications such as enabling better food production are advancing. Bioelectrics is also used in wine production. There is a lot of cross-over between the different disciplines and the exciting part is that through collaboration and discussions we are all learning from each other."
The international conference, sponsored by the International Society for Electroporation-Based Technologies and Treatments (ISEBTT), is intended to bring together researchers from different disciplines possessing diverse expertise in the use of high intensity pulsed electric fields, whether for basic research or application development. The aim of this congress is to create an environment stimulating interdisciplinary interactions, to present the latest achievements and to demonstrate current knowledge.
