Summer school in radiation biology

Général

DoReMi (www.doremi-noe.net) is a Euratom-funded Network of Excellence set up to promote and integrate European research into the risks of exposure to low doses of ionising radiation. In addition, DoReMi facilitates and promotes training and education in support of the research programme within the project, and also makes more widely available training opportunities in order to help attract top-level students into the field. As part of this initiative, a Summer school in radiobiology of two week duration is organized by the Belgian Nuclear Research Centre. It is open to pupils and students preferentially between 17 and 20 years old, who are interested in medical and biological research related to nuclear energy.

Multidisciplinary radiobiological research forms the scientific basis of various disciplines such as radiation protection, radiotherapy and nuclear medicine. Consequently, radiobiology contributes to human health. The goal of radiobiological research in radiation protection is to better understand the effects of the radiation exposure at the cellular and molecular levels in order to determine the effects on health. The purpose of the research carried out in the unit of radiobiology is, for both national and international projects, to provide scientific knowledge to the authorities and to inform the population appropriately about the effects of ionizing radiation under normal or accidental circumstances.

The main research lines that are currently studied in radiobiology at SCK•CEN are:

• The individual susceptibility to ionizing radiation and the related cancer risks.
• The impact of ionizing radiation on female gametes, on the development of the embryo and the brain.
• The impact of space conditions (in particular of cosmic radiation and weightlessness) on health.
• The biological effects of the medical use of ionizing radiation and radioactive substances in radiotherapy and medical imaging.