International Bioelectrics Consortium
The research field of Bioelectrics has emerged from the application of intense, pulsed electric fields on biological cells and tissues. An important focus is the 'electroporation' of the membrane of cells with electric fields in excess of microsecond applied repetitively. With the possibilities of Pulsed Power technologies to generate intense and ultrashort electrical high voltage pulses an opportunity was presented to reach into the cell interior and manipulate cells in addition in different ways and for example induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Researchers and institutes engaged in this field have joined in 2002 in the International Bioelectrics Consortium to promote the field and exchange knowledge and progress on respective findings and applications. The founding members of the consortium were Kumamoto University (Graduate School of Science and Technology, 21st Century COE Programs on Pulsed Power Science and on Cell Fate Regulation Research and Education Unit) in Japan, Old Dominion University (Center for Bioelectrics) in Norfolk, Virginia, USA and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology) in Germany. Soon more researchers and institutes were joining and with their individual interest expanding the scope of activities into related areas of electrical stimuli for the manipulation of living cells, such as the application of non-thermal plasmas or exposures to terahertz radiation.
By 2018 altogether 16 institutions are members of the International Bioelectrics Consortium:
- Kumamoto University, Institute of Pulsed Power Science & Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto, Japan
- Old Dominion University, Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics, Norfolk, Virginia, USA
- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Institute for Pulsed Power and Microwave Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
- University of Missouri, College of Engineering, Columbia, USA
- Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology, INP Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany
- University Paul Sabatier, Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology, Toulouse, France
- University of South Florida, Center for Molecular Delivery, Tampa, USA
- Institute Gustave-Roussy together with University of Paris-Sud, Villejuif, France
- Institute of Oncology Ljubljana, Department of Experimental Oncology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
- Institute of Plasma Physics, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czech Republic
- Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and Sustainable Ecologic Development, Radiation Sources Laboratory, Frascati & Rome, Italy
- Institute for Electrical Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment, CNR, Naples, Italy
- Center for Experimental Drug and Gene Electrotransfer, Copenhagen University, Herlev Hospital, Herlev, Denmark
- Lisbon Enegineering Superior Institute, Pulsed Power Advanced Applications Research Group, Lisbon, Portugal
- Eindhoven University of Technology, Department of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
- XLIM Research Institute, University of Limoge CNRS, Limoges, France
Since 2005 the Consortium is organizing the annual Bioelectrics Symposium which has emerged from Workshops and dedicated Session at other conferences. In 2018 the 15th International Bioelectrics Symposium will be organized by the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic. Previous meetings were held:
- 2017, September 24-28: Norfolk, Virginia, USA, as part of the 2nd World Congress on Electroporation
- 2016, September 12-15: Rostock, Germany
- 2015, September 6-10: Portoroz, Slovenia, as part of the 1st World Congress on Electroporation
- 2014, October 13-16: Columbia, Missouri, USA
- 2013, September 16-19: Karlsruhe, Germany
- 2012, September 5-8: Kumamoto, Japan
- 2011, May 4-6: Toulouse, France
- 2010, June 24-26: Norfolk, Virginia, USA
- 2009, June 25-26: Columbia, Missouri, USA
