The University of Edinburgh has announced a deal with US hardware firm Plasma Etch to license a new advanced cleaning process, set to save the medical industry thousands of pounds.

The new technique, known as Midas, can clean all infectious agents from surgical instruments – including those contaminated with CJD.

The process involves plasma – ionised gas that is considered to be a separate, high-energy state of matter – being used to clean the surface of medical instruments. The technique is 1000 times more effective than traditional methods at breaking down biological material.

This includes prions, the suspected infectious particle associated with CJD in humans, as well as BSE in cattle and scrapie in sheep. As these particles are not living pathogens, like bacteria or viruses, it is much more difficult to reduce their infectivity by traditional sterilisation methods such as autoclaving – a common technique using heat and pressure.

Professor John Hopkins of the Centre for Infectious Disease, also at the university, explains: “All the current methods of sterilisation do not fully decontaminate neuroscience instruments, as there is the potential for CJD-related particles to remain.

“The new process is cheap, simple, easy to scale-up, and non-destructive – meaning expensive instruments can be cleaned and re-used.”

It is thought the new process could be used both on neurosurgical instruments and also on dental instruments, after the government’s Chief Dental Officer ordered dentists to stop reusing equipment used in root canal treatments earlier this year for fear of spreading CJD.

Professor Robert Baxter, of the university’s School of Chemistry, led the development of the technique over a number of years. He said: “We are excited at the prospect afforded by this collaboration in developing our laboratory-based studies into efficient and practical solutions for what is a serious problem in healthcare.”

The deal was struck between Plasma Etch, based in the US state of Nevada, and Edinburgh Research and Innovation, the University of Edinburgh’s commercial arm.