DIT PhD Project
Supervisor name & contact details:
Name James Curtin, PJ Cullen
Tel +353-1-4024408
Email james.curtin@dit.ie
Research Centre:
Bioplasma Research Group
School of Food Science and Environmental
Health
Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland.
Research Centre website:
http://dit.ie/bioplasma/
http://www.dit.ie/fseh/
Link to Supervisor’s Publications
Please add the link to your publications in
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James Curtin
http://goo.gl/45m5jU
PJ Cullen
http://goo.gl/sKTKC5
Brief summary of research centre activity:
In our School we carry out a broad range of research from Food Innovation to Nutraceuticals,
Pharmaceuticals and Environmental Health. Research is broadly in the area of human health and
its interaction with Food and the Environment. The BioPlasma group is a multidisciplinary
research group bringing together scientists and engineers to develop plasma solutions for the life
sciences. Current projects include non-thermal plasma technologies for food preservation,
surface modification and wound treatment. In particular the group investigates the effects of
plasma on microbial and mammalian cells.
Title & brief description of PhD project :
Cold Plasma Detoxification of Pharmaceuticals
Brazil is a key emerging market for Pharmaceuticals. Between 2007 and 2011, retail drug sales
have increased 82.2% owing to significant growth in health care expenditures. Multinational
pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi, Novartis & Takeda have chosen to acquire local
companies as a strategy to enter the Brazilian market and have made important investments to
expand activities in Brazil. There are about 1750 approved drugs, including small molecules and
biopharmaceuticals, in use today around the world. Most of these are intensively produced at a
few key locations globally. Pharmaceuticals are relatively unique among manufactured chemicals
in that they are designed to act specifically on receptors in living cells. This presents additional
risks when they disseminate and persist in the environment. Pharmaceuticals are often nondegradable, long-lasting and acid resistant. Pharmaceuticals entering the environment can persist
and residues are often found in drinking water. Bioaccumulation has been observed in aquatic
species such as fish and there are at present unknown risks to vulnerable populations such as
foetuses when exposed.
As the world’s population is growing and ageing, more people can afford medical treatment.
Therefore, pharmaceutical manufacturing is expected to increase rapidly. Decontamination of
synthetic compounds created during the manufacturing process and following use is an ongoing
issue. We will test and optimise a cold plasma based technological solution to inactivate
pharmaceuticals in this project. Validation of this technology will involve a kinetic and end point
analysis of chemical constituents and biological activities of the degraded products. This research
is based on recent publications demonstrating that dielectric barrier discharge cold plasma
system built by our group was capable of chemical modification a number of medicinal drugs.
Objective(s)
•
•
•
Evaluate and characterise plasma-dependent degradation using a panel of widely used
pharmaceutical drugs
Evaluate and characterise biological activity of widely used pharmaceutical drugs treated
using cold-plasma technology.
Optimise the existing cold-plasma technology for rapid degradation of selected
pharmaceutical products.
Ciência sem Fronteiras / Science Without Borders Priority Area:
Pharmaceuticals