From the basic science of biological effects of ultrashort electrical pulses to medical therapies.

ABSTRACT

This article is based on my presentation at the D'Arsonval Ceremony at the Joint Annual Meeting of the Bioelectromagnetics Society and the European BioElectromagnetics Association in Hangzhou, China, in June of 2017. It describes the pathway from the first studies on the effects of intense, nanosecond pulses on biological cells to the development of medical therapies based on these effects. The motivation for the initial studies of the effects of high voltage, nanosecond pulses on mammalian cells was based on a simple electrical circuit model, which predicted that such pulses allow us to affect not just the plasma membrane but also the subcellular structures. The first experimental study that confirmed this hypothesis was published in 2001 in the Bioelectromagnetics journal. It was followed by a large number of publications that showed that such ultrashort pulses affect cell functions, such as programmed cell death, and, at lower intensity, calcium mobilization from intracellular structures. These basic studies were leading to novel cancer treatments, treatments of cardiac arrhythmia, and advanced wound healing. Further, by reducing the pulse duration into the picosecond range, antenna-based neural stimulation seems to be possible. This manuscript gives an overview of the progress in this field of research in the decade after the initial bioelectric studies with high-voltage, nanosecond pulses, particularly the research performed at the Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics. It also tells you about my journey and that of my colleagues at the Center for Bioelectrics into and through this fascinating bioelectromagnetics research area. Bioelectromagnetics. 39257-276, 2018. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.