510314 - RADIATION BIOPHYSICS AND RADIOBIOLOGY

The course will introduce students to the mechanisms relative to the physical, chemical and biological effects of ionising radiation at sub-cellular, cellular, and organism level (including cancer and non-cancer risk, particularly at low doses). After a description of the physical stage of the interaction radiation - biological structures, the time evolution of the radiobiological damage will be analysed, also covering the chemical (e.g. radiation chemistry of water and DNA solutions) and biological effects (e.g. radiation damage to DNA in a cellular environment and repair processes). Damage evolution and repair of various radiobiological endpoints and in particular their role in the development of radiation-induced diseases and disorders, will be considered. This will include: chromosome aberrations and their impact on tissue function, their persistence and function in biological dosimetry, modes of cell death, proliferative function inactivation, perturbation of intra- and inter-cellular signalling, “non-targeted” effects (bystander, genomic instability, adaptive response, etc.). Particular attention will be given to the dependence on radiation quality. Different approaches and methods will be introduced and compared, for modelling radiobiological effects: stochastic (e.g. Monte Carlo) vs deterministic (e.g. based on differential equations), discrete vs continuous, macroscopic vs microscopic, predictive vs exploratory etc.. Radiation will be studied as a perturbation of a complex (biological) system. A multi-scale approach will characterize the course and a general introduction on systems radiation biology and its methods will be presented. Applications will be in particular on radiation risk estimation at low doses, and on clinical radiobiology for optimizing medical uses (e.g. in radiology, and in existing and emerging techniques in radiotherapy). A laboratory part is also planned, in the laboratory of Radiation Biophysics and Radiobiology of the Physics Department.