Eugene Surdutovich contributes to three papers in a special issue of the European Physical Journal D

The October 2010 issue of the European Physical Journal D is a special topical issue about “Molecular level assessments of radiation biodamage.” Visiting Assistant Professor Eugene Surdutovich, of the Department of Physics, contributed to three articles in this issue, including the introductory editorial (Baccarelli, Giantureo, Scifoni, Solov’yov, and Surdutovich, 2010, Molecular level assessments of radiation biodamage, Eur. Phys. J. D, Volume 60, Pages 1-10). The authors write

“The damaging effects of energetic radiation have been known for many years. It has been commonly accepted that high-energy tracks formed by photons, electrons and atomic ions ionize cell components along the track, thereby leading to various dissociation channels and to the formation of damaging radicals. This knowledge has triggered intensive research on radiation protection and the development of biomedical applications for different ionising radiations, generally referred to as radiotherapy, especially used for treatment of tumourous diseases…

The growing attention to this multidisciplinary research has successfully generated, among other events, a series of RADAM, i.e., radiation damage in biomolecular systems, conferences, initiated by the COST action (2004– 2007) and, due to its success, still continues on an annual basis after the end of the action. This EPJD volume was indeed stimulated by the latest sixth conference of this series, which was held in Frankfurt am Main, Germany in July 2009 (www.fias.uni-frankfurt.de/radam2009).”

Surdutovich spoke at the RADAM conference, and chaired a session. He also contributed to two research articles in the topical issue: Surdutovich, Yakubovich, and Solov’yov, 2010, Multiscale approach to radiation damage induced by ion beams: Complex DNA damage and effects of thermal spikes, Eur. Phys. J. D, Volume 60, Pages 101-108; and Scifoni, Surdutovich and Solov’yov, 2010, Radial dose distribution from carbon ion incident on liquid water, Eur. Phys. J. D, Volume 60, Pages 115-119. The abstract from the first of these two papers is given below.

“We present the latest advances of the multiscale approach to radiation damage caused by irradiation of a tissue with energetic ions and report the calculations of complex DNA damage and the effects of thermal spikes on biomolecules. The multiscale approach aims to quantify the most important physical, chemical, and biological phenomena taking place during and following irradiation with ions and provide a better means for clinically-necessary calculations with adequate accuracy. We suggest a way of quantifying the complex clustered damage, one of the most important features of the radiation damage caused by ions. This quantification allows the studying of how the clusterization of DNA lesions affects the lethality of damage. We discuss the first results of molecular dynamics simulations of ubiquitin in the environment of thermal spikes, predicted to occur in tissue for a short time after an ion’s passage in the vicinity of the ions’ tracks.”