Biomedical Physics: Radiation Biophysics and Radiobiology
The Radiation Biophysics and Radiobiology group carries on experimental and theoretical studies on ionizing radiation effects on biological structures, with applications in the clinical use of radiation for diagnostics and therapy (optimization, including the risk of complications and secondary tumours), radiation protection (in particular for low doses and manned missions in deep space). Research activities are carried out in collaborations involving physicists, biologists, medical doctors and epidemiologists.
In particular, the ultimate goal is to shed light on the fundamental mechanisms leading to damage at sub-cellular, cellular, tissue, organ and systemic levels, starting energy deposition in the target by physical interactions (track structure modeling with Monte Carlo simulations). Radiation induced DNA damage and repair processes (and their relevance in inducing other biological endpoints) are investigated, along with intra- and extra signalling perturbation (bystander effect), and their anti- and pro-carcinogenesis implications. To pin down mechanisms associated to radiation induced risk (cancer and non-cancer, including cardiovascular risk) and develop robust predictive models, a holistic approach has to be combined with a step by step description of radiation action. Ionizing radiation has to be treated as a perturbing agent of a complex system that will react with complex behaviours and feedback phenomena, and may end up with a homeostatic equilibrium or with a pathological condition. Classical reductionist studies are therefore combined with system, multi-scale approaches (systems radiation biology approach), also to integrate datasets on different radiation effects (e.g. pro-inflammatory responses, cell senescence).
The general objectives of applied research are:
- to predict radiation risk particularly from low doses (cancer and non cancer, including cardiovascular effects) and its dependence on dose, dose rate and radiation quality (particularly for neutrons);
- develop predictive and robust mathematical models of radiation action on biological systems;
- to optimize the clinical use of radiation in diagnostics and therapy (e.g. risk of complications and of secondary tumours in radiotherapy, with photons and hadrons);
- to use radiation as a probe to study the response of biological systems to external stimuli, e.g. in samples from patients with (rare) genetic diseases.
- to assess the risk and develop countermeasures for manned space exploration (e.g. mission to Mars).
For further information on the research activities, national and European projects and training and education offer please visit our website.
Staff: Andrea Ottolenghi, Gabriele Babini, Giorgio Baiocco, Sofia Barbieri, Jacopo Morini, Vere Smyth