Radiation Effects in Materials. Chapter 5: Radiation and Environmental Biophysics: From Single Cells to Small Animals

Abstract

In this chapter, two of very unique and novel radiation technologies for modern radiobiology studies are reviewed. First of all, it is concentrated on the developments of accelerator-based particle microbeam system, which has been effectively used for studying the puzzle of “radiation-induced bystander effect.” In addition, a recent published single-cell microbeam study, which is aiming to directly measure a cell’s radio-sensitivity combining microbeam system with self-referencing biosensor, is included. Then, toward the study of realistic irradiation scenarios in radiation biology in particular, such as a nuclear attack for homeland security concerns or a potential large-scale radiological event, there would be a major need to ascertain, within a few days, the radiation doses received by tens or hundreds of thousands of individuals. Specifically, biological tests would need to be established to estimate the likelihood of such radiation exposure to result in serious health consequences, tests that would then be applied to decide on the correct treatments that might mitigate the short- and long-term health effects of such radiation exposure. However, because of the complexity and difficulty of conducting tests in such circumstance, innovative irradiation systems and technology are required. So the new developments of small animal irradiation system for evaluating the radiation risk and carrying out animal model radiobiology experiments within the mimicked radiation scenarios are covered in the second half of this chapter.