Alexander Golberg and Wolfgang Frey

The concerns on the energy and food security, and global warming led to the tremendous advances in the alternative to fossils energy sources and energy efficient technologies in the recent decade. Sustainable and inclusive Bioeconomy challenges the economy of fossil fuels and is a major challenge for the business, governments and academia for the coming decades. Development of novel, energy efficient techniques for biomass processing could drive bioeconomy. Pulsed electric fields (PEF) methods can provide an energy efficient tool for biomass manipulation and processing. Therefore, PEF have a potential for integration in multiple paths of the novel processes developed for the coming age of Bioeconomy. To explore the potential of PEF for the Bioeconomy there is a need in new breakthrough in both fundamental science of electric fields interactions with the plant tissue and large scale processing technologies. This session seeks to provide a venue for ongoing research in fundamental and applied PEF with implications for Bioeconomy and enabling Biorefineries for sustainability and climate change mitigation.

• Interaction of pulsed electric fields with plants and algae.
• Electroporation for plants and algae transformation for efficient production of food and biofuels
• PEF for biomolecules extraction from plants and algae
• Improving process energy consumption with PEF
• PEF for improvement of biofuels production
• Life Cycle Assessment of PEF technologies and processes
• Integration of PEF-technology in biorefinery.
• PEF for biomass drying
• PEF and electroporation in waste management
• Economics of processes with integrated PEF units
• PEF and climate change

Julie Gehl

Calcium electroporation is a new aspect of electroporation based therapies, where supraphysiological doses of calcium are internalized by permeabilization of cell membranes. Calcium electroporation holds advantages as it does not require a chemotherapeutic agent. Several preclinical studies have indicated the efficacy of calcium electroporation, and the first clinical studies are ongoing or have completed recruitment. This sessions welcomes preclinical as well as clinical studies on the use of calcium electroporation and the mechanisms of action involved.

Indrawati Oey

This session will discuss how Pulsed Electric Fields processing modifies the structure and functionality of foods and how these impacts can give benefits to food industries. It will include modification of microstructure, food functionality (such as antioxidant capacity, bioprotective capacity, and digestibility), sensory properties, food safety and also any advancements in approach, modelling and technical implementations related to this topic. The food products covered will be animal based products, plant based products, formulated foods, eggs and dairy.

Julie Gehl

Electrochemotherapy, the use of reversible electroporation to enhance uptake of chemotherapy in malignant tumors, is now in clinical use for the treatment of cutaneous metastases from different cancer histologies or primary skin cancers not amenable to surgery. Response rates are high across studies, with limited side effects. Based on the positive results obtained for metastases to the skin, a number of novel studies are investigating electrochemotherapy for deeper seated tumors in e.g. the head and neck region. Further studies are investigating electrochemotherapy for esophageal-, colorectalcancer, as well as for primary and secondary liver tumors and pancreatic cancer. These sessions focus on clinical results using electrochemotherapy, but also preclinical data further enhancing the understanding of clinical use of electrochemotherapy.

Hao Lin and Jeffrey Zahn

Micro-engineered devices have been extensively researched on and developed over the past two decades. In recent years, researchers began to combine micro- and nano-technology with electroporation to reap the benefits of both. This session will include speakers who use micro-nano-fluidic and other micro-nano-engineered devices to achieve high precision and control on cell electroporation. Related topics including on-chip impedance measurement and monitoring, cell handling and processing with electric and/or magnetic fields, are also encouraged.

Siva Sarathy and Thomas Dempster

This session will include research focused on the application of pulsed electric field (PEF) processing to enhance growth and biochemical constituent extraction of microalgae and microalgae products including lipids, pigments and other high value products. Also included will be PEF research on the mitigation of destructive predator organisms, like flagellates, ciliates and amoeba, in microalgae cultures and PEF-induced apoptosis in yeast. Finally, the session invites presentations on environmental applications of PEF such as water treatment, enhancing energy recovery from waste materials (e.g., anaerobic digestion), and the use of PEF for improving resource extraction.

Javier Raso

Pulsed electric fields (PEF) is an innovative non-thermal processing technology that permits to pasteurize heat-sensitive liquid foods, to enhance mass transfer in different operations of the food industry and to modify the textural properties of foods. PEF processing has low energetic requirements and minimizes food quality deterioration. Despite that many benefits are derived from PEF, currently the introduction of the PEF technology in the food industry is still limited.
FieldFOOD project is an innovation action funded by the Horizon2020 Framework Programme of the European Union which main objective is to address successful, real-scale demonstrations of the viability of the introduction of PEF technology as a strategy to improve the competitiveness of the food industry by improving food quality (safety, nutritional, and sensorial properties), optimizing process efficiency, reducing energetic costs, and introducing new foods in the market. This broad objective will be achieved by (i) A systematic process analysis of different specific applications (fruit juices, tomato products, wine, olive oil and cider) for a successful integration of the PEF technology in order to replace or complement existing traditional food processing technologies and (ii) the design of modular, portable, low-cost pulse generators. The efforts needed to introduce this technology in the food industry have necessary to be multidisciplinary. To be efficient and successful, strong links have been established between 4 research institutions with a well-established expertise in PEF technology, 1 manufacture of PEF generators, 5 food companies that represent the final users of the technology, 1 promoter of technological transfer and 1 expert on evaluation of food process sustainability. The purpose of this session is present the main results obtained during the first two years of the project including tests conducting in the processing plants of the food companies involved in the project. At the end of the session a tasting of the wines elaborated in the winery with grapes treated by PEF will be conducted.

Stefan Toepfl and Mike Kempkes

Pulsed Electric Field Systems have been successfully transferred from research into industrial application within the last decade. Their use allows a targeted membrane permeabilization to enhance mass transport during drying and extraction, achieve tissue softening as well as to achieve a low heat microbial inactivation in food and bio-processing industries. The first part of the session will provide an overview on current industrial applications and processing systems and discuss process and equipment design considerations. Recent developments in pulse modulator and treatment chamber design will be presented along with validation approaches for process robustness and product safety. The second part will highlight relevant current and future applications. The talks will focus on application and processing benefits of Pulsed Electric Fields in the area of fruit and vegetable processing as well as preservation of shelf life extension of heat sensitive liquids. Industrial experience will be discussed with regard to technical and legislative requirements, processing costs and benefits achieved. In addition, examples of upcoming applications with high potential for commercial use in the area of waste water processing, algae treatment and drying enhancement will be presented.

• Overview of available systems and current use
• Large scale pulse modulator typologies – current state of the art
• PEF treatment chambers – design considerations with regards to flexibility, homogeneity and electrode reactions
• PEF application in vegetable processing industry
• Low heat preservation of fruit juices and smoothies
• Process validation for shelf life extension and decontamination of heat sensitive liquids by PEF

Kevin Hollevoet

Recombinant antibody products are one of today’s most successful therapeutic classes in inflammatory diseases and oncology. A wider accessibility and implementation, however, is hampered by the high protein production costs and prolonged need for frequent administration. Moreover, the often limited efficacy as a single agent has led to a surge in (antibody) combination therapies, which adds to the cost and risk of toxicity. To address these issues, antibody gene transfer seeks to administer to patients the antibody-encoding DNA, rather than the antibody protein. This approach allows the body to produce its own medicine in a cost- and labor-effective manner. Antibody gene transfer has been pursued with different expression platforms. Viral-vectored antibody gene transfer has made significant strides in recent years, but still faces scrutiny. Driven by promising pre-clinical studies, non-viral antibody gene electrotransfer continues to gain ground as an alternative. This session seeks to bring together the different actors in the field of antibody gene transfer to discuss current hurdles and advances in DNA and delivery technology and to boost collaborations in order to fully harness the promise of antibody gene transfer.

Irreversible electroporation (IRE) has recently been developed for minimally invasive image guided ablation (in situ destruction) of tumors, and has seen rapid adoption for the treatment of many different types of cancer in patients. As a new technique, techniques for using IRE in patients is still evolving and there is ongoing pre-clinical and clinical research to develop best practices with this technique for optimal outcomes. The goal of the IRE special sessions will be to educate the attendees on the most recent clinical outcomes following IRE, identify critical research challenges and ongoing work to advance the field.

Maura Casciola and Thomas Vernier

This track will include reports on porative pulsed electric field interactions with biological systems at molecular and cellular levels, investigated through modeling and experimental approaches. Understanding the mechanisms of pulsed electric field-induced effects on membranes and other cellular and sub-cellular structures, including transient and long-term membrane permeabilization, and on cell physiological processes, is a critically needed prerequisite for optimization of electroporation-based technologies and treatments to achieve the highest efficiencies and to minimize undesirable side effects. This track will be organized in sessions that integrate experimental observations of biomolecular physics and cell and tissue biology phenomena with modeling studies utilizing atomistic and continuum approaches.

• Pore characterization (model membranes, lipid vesicles, cells)
• Molecular transport (ions, small and large molecules, genetic material)
• Dynamics of transmembrane electrical potential and conductance
• Electromodulation of membrane proteins, including ion channels
• Cell signaling and regulatory networks
• Calcium release and regulation
• Cytoskeleton dynamics
• Impedance characterization of single cells and cell suspensions
• Cell sensitization and desensitization to bioelectrical stimuli
• Stimulation of electrically and immunologically active cells
• Mechanical and chemical stress and electropermeabilization

Emanuela Signori and Richard Heller

Cancer Immunoediting is a well-known process which recognizes the existence of a fine interaction between the immune system and tumors. It has been demonstrated that malignant tumor growth and spread is due to its ability to escape immune system control. Oncoimmunology represents a quite recent discipline devoted to studying new anti-tumoral immunotherapeutic approaches. Among these emerging strategies are electrogenetransfer (EGT) and electrochemotherapy (ECT) protocols. Thanks to a better understanding of the mechanisms governing electrotransfer, electroporation has become a widely accepted platform technology for drug and gene delivery. Nowadays, by using electric fields, it is possible to target immunosuppressor genes by oligonucleotide delivery, or to deliver different drugs to enhance the immune system response such as cancer vaccines, immunomodulatory molecules, chemotherapeutic agents, etc. In the Oncoimmunology session, we want to call attention and discuss the fundamental, translational and clinical studies involving electroporation in the tumor immunology field.

Tony Z. Jin, Howard Zhang and C. Patrick Dunne

Pulsed electric fields (PEF) technology has shown promising application in food for enhancing food safety, improving food quality and extending food shelflife. Although most of those studies involved food pasteurization, that is, inactivation of foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms, other applications for food also gain more and more interesting. As PEF systems become more reliable and affordable with different power levels, new applications of PEF in food industry are possible, thus open doors for other new research areas for PEF technology. Beside continuous study on the improvement of food pasteurization, increasing food dehydration rate, extracting active compounds from plants, modifying enzyme/protein structure, and enhancing chemical reactions have been gained more attentions. The speakers in this symposium are experts in the field of pulsed electric fields processing of food from academia and research, food professionals, equipment manufacturers, and will share their experience in PEF research. The topics in this symposium will cover food pasteurization, food dehydration and extraction, and compound structure modification by PEF treatments. The currently available commercial PEF systems will be also introduced and updated. This symposium will provide valuable information for future PEF research and perspectives on new applications.

Shu Xiao and Wolfgang Frey

Generation of short, high-voltage pulses is an essential requirement in Bioelectrics research, process development and for industrial applications. This session will include speakers familiar with engineering aspects of pulsed power generator design and development, switching, diagnostics and apparatus design from the picosecond to the millisecond time domain. In addition to new results, findings and developments on these topics, the session will particularly focus on an introductory elucidation of the engineering background and/or on illustrating potential solutions of targeted problems and approaches that will be presented in a format for a non-pulsed-power-engineering audience.

Andrei Pakhomov and Bennett Ibey

Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) grants are awarded by the US Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) to support fundamental, cutting-edge research that crosses traditional science and engineering boundaries. In 2015, a 5-year, $7.5 million MURI award went to a group of scientists led by A. Pakhomov of the Old Dominion University (ODU) Frank Reidy Research Center for Bioelectrics to support the in-depth mechanistic research of the interaction of nanosecond pulsed electric fields with living objects and the development of targeted bio-stimulation. The project includes science and engineering teams led by G. Craviso (U. of Nevada), O. Pakhomova (ODU), P. T. Vernier (ODU), J. Weaver (MIT), S. Xiao (ODU), and V. Yakovlev (Texas A&M U.). The workshop agenda (details to be posted) will include presentations from each team and from the Air Force Research Laboratory (B.L. Ibey).

The workshop is open to all World Congress participants and does not require registration.

Sunday, September 24, 1:00-6:00 pm

Justin Teissié

Genetic engineering is considered as one of the most promising domains for translational research in the area of human health, by making achievable the correction of a mutated gene, the production of therapeutic proteins, and the elimination of viral sequences. This can be obtained through the introduction of nucleic acid complexes to insert specific modifications. Several approaches have been described and currently being tested for potential efficiency and safety. Protein and nucleic acid delivery by pulsed electric fields appears to be the most successful approach thus far. The session will cover the state of the art in the EP methodology including the challenges of delivery of Cas9 (physical and cellular controls) to obtain the right strategy for potential clinical application. An approach that evaluates the mechanisms that could help to control repair pathways and different reactive mechanisms that negatively affect the CRISPR system will be discussed as well as possible the in vivo reimplantation.

Hope Beier, Elena Gianulis and Claudia Muratori

The effects of nanosecond pulsed electric fields (nsPEF) encompass nanoporation of membranes (plasma membrane, endoplasmic reticulum, and mitochondria), extracellular Ca 2+ influx and release from the endoplasmic reticulum, destruction of the cytoskeleton, activation of signaling pathways, and induction of both necrosis and apoptosis. Moreover, the recent discovery of the phenomenon of bioeffects cancellation by bipolar nsPEF has set nanoporation apart from the conventional electroporation by milli- and microsecond pulses. The diversity of these effects is promising for applications such as electrostimulation and tumor and tissue ablation. This session will provide a forum to discuss the ongoing research on mechanisms responsible for nsPEF bioeffects and strategies to advance their application in medicine.

• Effects of nsPEF on the plasma membrane
• Effects of nsPEF on organelles
• Ca²⁺ mobilization and signal transduction pathways
• Mechanisms of cell death induced by nsPEF
• Excitation of cells and tissue by nsPEF
• Tissue and tumor ablation by nsPEF