Abstract: A plasma treatment probe may include a hollow, tubular electrode defining an interior region, and a coaxial insulating tube configured to enclose the electrode. The insulating tube may form a gas flow outlet at one end. An outer chamber may enclose the insulating tube and the hollow electrode, and may have a gas inlet for receiving a gas mixture. The hollow electrode may be configured to receive nanosecond electric pulses, while a gas mixture flows from the gas inlet through the interior region of the electrode, so that a non-thermal plasma can be ignited that exits from the gas flow outlet onto a region of a patient's body to medically treat the region.

Abstract: The present invention is related to methods in which an electric field pulse is applied to cells and tissue. Several embodiments of the present invention relate to the application of electric field pulses to cells to regulate the physiology and biophysical properties of various cell types, including terminally differentiated and rapidly dividing cells. Methods of regulating transcription of a gene in a cell, marking a cell for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, determining cellular tolerance to electroperturbation, selectively electroperturbing a population of cells, reducing proliferation of rapidly dividing cells in a patient, and facilitating entry of a diagnostic or therapeutic agent into a cell's intracellular structures are also provided.