Plasma medicine research in costa rica: Overview of first steps

In the last decade, the various challenges, novelty, and potential of the emerging field of plasma medicine have caught the attention of several plasma physics and engineering groups, companies, and governments around the world. Among them, in 2013, the Plasma Laboratory for Fusion Energy and Applications of the Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (Costa Rica Institute of Technology, TEC) started its first steps on this novel field motivated by numerous reasons, including the declaration of national interest in the field of plasma physics and applications given by the government of the Republic of Costa Rica. The present work briefly describes the first steps in Costa Rica’s plasma medicine projects, which include plasma sterilization, antibacterial textiles, cell viability by atmospheric pressure non-equilibrium plasma (APNP), bioactive and antibacterial plasma-sprayed coatings, and atmospheric pressure plasma applications in dentistry.