In JINR Laboratories

Return JINR to the name
of the world centre of radiobiology

The seminar summing up the results of 2025 was held at the Laboratory of Radiation Biology on 26 December. The LRB employees, the members of JINR Directorate, Directors and the employees of other Laboratories of the Institute gathered in the Conference hall.

"This year, the founder of the Laboratory Evgeny Krasavin left us, the Institute has suffered other serious losses; Sergey Dmitriev and other colleagues have passed away," LRB Director Aleksander Bugay began his speech with the sad events of the year. "As if anticipating his departure, E.A.Krasavin left behind a legacy in new monographs. This year, the 20th anniversary of the Laboratory was celebrated, we felt like a common team with colleagues from other institutes. The personnel of LRB has been updated: the position of Deputy Director was taken by D.I.Padron (Cuba), there are more young people. This year, the merits of Head of the Astrobiology Sector Academician A.Yu.Rozanov were awarded the Order of Alexander Nevsky. The position of LRB in the JINR AYSS was strengthened. The junior researcher of the Laboratory R.A.Kozhina became Chairman of the Association Council."

A.N.Bugay began summing up the scientific results with the area "Molecular Radiobiology". In 2025, excellent work on the investigation of various radio modifiers and their synergy with the already proven arabinoside cytosine was carried out, which several patents were obtained for. The young Head of the Sector V.N.Chausov defended his thesis. The efforts of the departments are united not only within the Laboratory, but also within the Institute. Together with the colleagues from MLIT, a lot of work is underway on new services for the automatic processing of biological data, the MOSLIT service does a fairly good job. New tools for the investigation of chromosomal aberrations started developing that is very important not only for radiation biology, but also for biodosimetry.

A.N.Bugay could not fail to highlight, speaking of molecular radiobiology and radiation cytogenetics, wide cooperation with medical centres - traditionally, work is carried out with the colleagues from the Medical Radiological Research Centre named after A.F.Tsyba (Obninsk) and the A.I.Burnazyan FMBC, joint papers were published this year. A very large activity in cytogenetics is carried out in the educational area, where South Africa is widely involved; the Laboratory staff has participated in schools held in this country and students from South Africa - in practices and experiments at LRB.

In radiation genetics, the most striking event of the year was the participation of laboratory staff together with the colleagues from DLNP JINR and IBMP in the experiment on the Bion-M biosatellite No.2. The data of the experiment are currently processed, joint publications are ahead.

Much work has been implemented in the field of medical radiobiology. Mostly field experiments have been carried out, the most striking of them was the work using radiopharmaceuticals. A new concept has been put forward showing that it is possible to significantly increase the efficiency of radiopharmaceuticals and targeted radionuclide therapy in general using well-proven radio sensitizers. This area has great prospects. Many investigations have been carried out on radiosensitizers, radioprotectants and mechanisms for protecting regular tissues, together with the colleagues from Belarus, Vietnam, Egypt, Serbia, South Africa that have come to LRB for a long time. Many of these projects were supported by grants from Plenipotentiaries.

In the field of radiation physiology, Alexander Bugay emphasized the long-term work on the investigation of multicomponent effects of radiation on the brain, primarily, the long-term consequences of radiotherapy. A new technique has been developed using not only traditional behavioral tests, but also electrophysiology systems that allow reading the brain activity of animals online. These approaches are developed, among other things, using automated data processing systems developed by the colleagues from MLIT. Cooperation with the colleagues from Belarusian institutes develops here, specialists from Armenia and other countries are expected to participate. Director of the Laboratory emphasized that LRB ar present has a fairly large bank of various tumor cell cultures of both rodents and humans that allows it to work at a modern level.

The prediction and simulation of the experiment should also be highlighted. As the speaker emphasized, the team of theorists developing new prototypes of biological processes that occur in response to radiation is very active. He highlighted the work of colleagues from Mongolia. These investigations on the damage and reparations will increase in the future in the development of new software products. Not only prototypes of DNA damage have been developed, cell populations are also currently studied; this is the tumor environment, brain stem cells.

"It is impossible to engage in radiation biology without irradiation facilities," Alexander Bugay said. Here is the strongest relationship with large experimental laboratories. At the NICA Complex, LRB employees have carried out great work on radiation simulation and will soon begin to prepare experiments on the application channels SIMBO and ISKRA. "Surely, together with DRB, we will contribute to dosimetry, especially, to high-energy neutron dosimetry," A.N.Bugay emphasized. "And it is impossible to schedule dosimetry without the development of software and applied physics. In this area, joint work has been carried out with a team of doctors and chemists from the Institute of Chemistry of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences."

In astrobiology, in addition to participating in the Bion-M experiment, extensive work has been carried out on micropaleontological investigations of the material of meteorites, fossils and new interesting hypotheses have been put forward by A.Yu.Rozanov and colleagues. This area attracts interest from other countries. With the new analytical tool obtained by LRB, today, it will be possible to get more engaged in prebiotic compounds.

On the infrastructure of the Laboratory, the results of the year are also good. The repair of the fifth floor of building No.113 has been completed, a new equipment has already been installed. The Laboratory was given part of the first floor of the same building that had previously been occupied by the Patent Department. Repairs will be carried out under a microscopy complex. The required expansion of the vivarium in building No.71 is expected. And the main event of the year is the transfer of the laboratory of the extension to the building 113 of LRB. In more distant plans, joint work with colleagues from FLNR and DLNP on radionuclide sources will be carried out. It applies to the project of RKhL-1 and smaller projects aimed at meeting fundamental and applied problems of radiobiology and technology for the synthesis of new radiopharmaceuticals.

In terms of replenishment of general laboratory equipment - LRB, one of the most advanced CYTEK flow cytometers has been obtained, a powerful tool for a wide variety of research areas. A confocal microscope with ultra-high-resolution technology, a very powerful tool for molecular radiobiology and molecular genetics, is expected to be delivered in January. A wider analysis of both already accumulated data and the processing of new experiments implemented on heavy ion accelerators will be possible. The X-ray device has been expanded that will unload the SARRP apparatus in the event of total irradiation of a large number of culture samples and make the procedure more routine.

"The key issue that concerns all radiobiologists is the possibility of irradiating samples next year," Director of the Laboratory said. "We have X-ray devices but of course, the main thing for us is research with beams of charged particles. It is possible to work on electron accelerators. We look forward to assembling the proton cyclotron MSC-230 and of course, the most anticipated are the application channels of the NICA Complex. We also wait for the start of real experiments U 400M in FLNR in May."

An Interlaboratory Council for Biophysical Research was organized at JINR, at the first meeting of which at the end of the year, plans were outlined for the consolidation of scientific projects. In October, a traditional conference was held dedicated this year to the anniversary of LRB and to the memory of its founder E.A.Krasavin. In 2026, an even larger event is expected - the 9th Congress on Radiation Research. For the first time, the Laboratory hosted a small team of colleagues from Argentina. A.N.Bugay recalled the NUMAR Conference held this year in Cuba and Mongolia and related events, the resumption of old contacts, as well as the new ones, very active participation in the events and experiments of LRB of scientific staffs from South Africa and Vietnam. The youth of the Laboratory has also been active, participating in youth conferences in Obninsk, Alushta, Sarov, Dubna.

Launch and development of the new laboratory equipment, the start of accelerator stations are in the plans of 2026. The most important scientific task is to carry out ambitious experiments after the forced downtime caused by the pandemic and the period of modernization of the main facilities of the Institute. "It is necessary to return JINR to the name of the world's leading centre for radiobiology of heavy charged particles," A.N.Bugay urged. "There will also be field experiments, possibly to China, since their experimental machines operate intensively. Interlaboratory cooperation also needs to be strengthened." A new department of radiobiology and radiochemistry will be opened in the branch of Moscow State University.

This year, at least, a dozen laboratory employees celebrated their jubilees, the most significant one was the jubilee of the oldest employee of LRB T.A.Fadeeva that turned 85. JINR Incentive Award for young scientists and specialists in science, technology and methodology was awarded the LRB employee Pham Thi Zuen.

In 2025, a scholarship named after E.A.Krasavin was established to stimulate young scientists of LRB and its first winner was Tatyana Khramko that was awarded diploma No.1.

Tatiana Khramko awarded E.A.Krasavin Scholarship Diploma No. 1

Olga TARANTINA,
photos by Igor LAPENKO