| Grant number: | 11/51594-2 |
| Support Opportunities: | Research Grants - Young Investigators Grants |
| Start date: | March 01, 2012 |
| End date: | February 29, 2016 |
| Field of knowledge: | Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics |
| Principal Investigator: | Mario Antonio Bernal Rodriguez |
| Grantee: | Mario Antonio Bernal Rodriguez |
| Host Institution: | Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin (IFGW). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil |
| Associated research grant(s): | 18/15316-7 - Study of the interaction of heavy charged particles with DNA using computational methods, AP.JP2 |
Abstract
The interaction of ionizing radiation with human beings leads to DNA damage. This damage is closely related to the origin of cancer as well as with its treatment through the radiation therapy. The Radiobiology is the branch of the science that studies the biological effects produced by ionizing radiations. There are two main approaches to study this kind of effects, experiments and simulations. The former is based on the use of in vitro cellular cultures exposed to ionizing radiations. The latter is based on the combination of biophysical models with Monte Carlo codes for the radiation transport simulation. Experiments present limitations to reproduce arbitrary combinations of irradiation setups and DNA configurations, among other parameters. Biophysical simulations allow to make a wide range of parameter combination and to discriminate between the influences of many factors, much of them impossible to be resolved in vitro experiments. However, experiments and simulations are complementary, as in many branchs of science. The GEANT4-DNA european project is intended to develop a computational package to simulate the transport of ns and electrons down to very low energies (~0.025 for electrons). This package would be used for nanodosimetry in Radiobiology. Our role into this project is to create biophysical models to validate the GEANT4-DNA package in Radiobiology. The scope of the proposed project is to develop a geometrical model of the human genetic material, accounting for six (6) organization levels for the three main DNA configurations (A, Band Z). In addition, a new biophysical model to simulate the DNA damage due to the impact of ionizing particles (direct damage) or water-derived chemical species (indirect damage) will be developed. The main scope of this project is to build up a computational tool to predict the relative biological effectiveness of photon, electron, and ion beams used in Radiation Therapy and Diagnostic. (AU)
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