ASU Invents Laser Beam That Kills AIDS
by Staff Writers
Tempe AZ (SPX) Nov 02, 2007
Physicists in Arizona State University have designed a revolutionary laser technique which can destroy viruses and bacteria such as AIDS without damaging human cells and may also help reduce the spread of hospital infections such as MRSA. The research, published on Thursday November 1 in the Institute of Physics’ Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter, discusses how pulses from an infrared laser can be fine-tuned to discriminate between problem microorganisms and human cells.
Current laser treatments such as UV are indiscriminate and can cause ageing of the skin, damage to the DNA or, at worst, skin cancer, and are far from 100 per cent effective.
Femtosecond laser pulses, through a process called Impulsive Stimulated Raman Scattering (ISRS), produces lethal vibrations in the protein coat of microorganisms, thereby destroying them. The effect of the vibrations is similar to that of high-pitched noise shattering glass.
The physicists in Arizona have undertaken experiments to show that the coherent vibrations excited by infrared lasers with carefully selected wavelengths and pulse widths do no damage to human cells, most likely because of the different structural compositions in the protein coats of human cells vis a vis bacteria and viruses.
Professor K. T. Tsen from Arizona State University said, “Although it is not clear at the moment why there is a large difference in laser intensity for inactivation between human cells and microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses, the research so far suggests that ISRS will be ready for use in disinfection and could provide treatments against some of the worst, often drug-resistant, bacterial and viral pathogens.”
Femtosecond lasers could find immediate application in hospitals as a way to disinfect blood supply or biomaterials and for the treatment of blood-borne diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis.
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GO SUN DEVILS!
“coherent vibrations excited by infrared lasers with carefully selected wavelengths and pulse widths do no damage to human cells,”
Lil ol’ ASU shows off to the entire F*ing world!
November 2nd, 2007 at 9:28 pmWow this sounds amazing! Go ASU!
November 2nd, 2007 at 11:50 pmAbsolutely Freakin Fantastic.
But screw ASU. University of Arizona Wildcats all the way.
Just kiddin, but gotta keep true to my school.
Congrats to our rivals though, that is fantastic news.
What is with the Lil ol’ ASU comment though? ASU has 35,000 plus students, and is located in a city of several million people. Good stuff comes out of Arizona people.
November 3rd, 2007 at 12:48 amI hope this brings great things for many families.
November 3rd, 2007 at 1:01 amDamn! I can’t believe I just read that. I hope they get it out and operating sooner rather than later. Hopefully it won’t be too expensive to cure the common cold.
November 3rd, 2007 at 8:49 amHopefully the treatment will be affordable. Not so with current treatments for AIDS. Now if they can just figure out how to zap those Islamofascist cells.
November 3rd, 2007 at 2:44 pm