Prospects for a Novel Ultrashort Pulsed Laser Technology for Pathogen Inactivation

The threat of emerging pathogens and microbial drug resistance has spurred tremendous efforts to develop new and more effective antimicrobial strategies. Recently, a novel ultrashort pulsed (USP) laser technology has been developed that enables efficient and chemical-free inactivation of a wide spectrum of viral and bacterial pathogens. Such a technology circumvents the need to introduce potentially toxic chemicals and could permit safe and environmentally friendly pathogen reduction, with a multitude of possible applications including the sterilization of pharmaceuticals, blood products, and the generation of attenuated or inactivated vaccines.
Published in Journal of Biomedical Science, v19 n62, 2012. The original document contains color images.