9th Congress on Radiation Research
The first day of the Congress was held in the Cultural Centre “Mir”. And it began very unusually - with a performance by a string quartet of soloists of the Dubna Symphony Orchestra that performed works by Mozart, Schumann, Elgar. The Congress was opened by President of the Radiobiological Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Chairman of the Scientific Council for Radiobiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Igor Ushakov. He highlighted that the Congress gathered not only scientists belonging to the Radiobiological Society, but also researchers from JINR, FMBA institutes, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Science and Russian universities. "I am deeply grateful to JINR and Director Grigory Trubnikov for the fact that in the anniversary year for the Institute, you took upon yourself the responsibility to hold such a major event as a congress," Co-Chairman of the Programme Committee said. "It is attended by representatives of 10 countries, 29 cities and more than 100 scientific organizations in Russia." I. B. Ushakov read out a greeting from Head of the FMBA of Russia V. I. Skvortsova. It said the Congress is held on the 40th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident and radiation safety issues are in the focus of the entire society. It is the scientific, especially, the radiobiological community, that is fully aware of the significance of biomedical risks concerning radiological and nuclear terrorism. "The ionizing radiation constantly expands; it is firmly established in the practice of medicine and is widely used in industry and agriculture. A special class of tasks relates to the development of manned astronautics," V. I. Skvortsova emphasized in the greeting and wished the Congress productive work. I. B. Ushakov spoke about the decisions of the previous congress held in 2021. He also thought of his late colleagues, including Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences E. A. Krasavin.
JINR Director Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Grigory Trubnikov emphasized that JINR is honored to host such a significant event. "Last year, at a conference on radiobiology in Dubna, I. B. Ushakov and I exchanged views on what could be offered to the community of radiobiologists, geneticists, biotechnologists, radiochemists in order to attract them to Dubna," he recalled. “Igor Borisovich offered to hold a congress. From the point of view of the development of science and in memory of Evgeny Krasavin, it would be an unforgettable event!" G. V. Trubnikov expressed deep gratitude to the Scientific Council on Radiobiology, the Russian Academy of Sciences for their support. "I think we are doing it very right, by uniting because there are many tasks," JINR Director said. “Russia is one of the few countries in the world that relies on technological sovereignty, on new technologies, on an interdisciplinary approach in all sciences. And the best confirmation of this is the membership of the participants in our Congress: not only radiobiologists and radiochemists gathered here, but also doctors, geneticists, specialists involved in the development and operation of sources of ionizing radiation." He highlighted that over the past two years, two unique facilities had been commissioned in the Russian Federation - the NICA Complex and the SKIF generation 4+ synchrotron source in Novosibirsk. The park of scientific facilities increases in the country, the BION-M experiment No. 2 has been successfully completed, big plans to carry out the next experiment are made. "I am glad that V. I. Skvortsova, Head of Roscosmos D. V. Bakanov, President of the Kurchatov Institute M. V. Kovalchuk widely support our common efforts, the desire to unite in implementing experiments. All this is a unique basis for modeling on Earth the conditions that will await astronauts in outer space." G.V. Trubnikov expressed deep gratitude to the organizers of the Congress.
"For me, being in Dubna is always a holiday," Vice President of the Russian Academy of Sciences S. N. Kalmykov said. “Here, physicists live in complete harmony with lyricists and I was convinced of this once again when Yu. Ts. Oganessian gave me a lecture on the work of P. Brueghel Sr. Extensive radiation research, including radiobiology, radioecology, radiation safety, everything related to nuclear medicine, is extremely relevant. The ambitious tasks that nuclear energy faces today, this is actually Nuclear Project 2.0, will not be implemented if we do not ensure safety. The tasks of handling nuclear waste, tasks related to radioecology, to the decommissioning of nuclear facilities, I'm not talking about nuclear medicine, are part of the issues that will be discussed at the Congress. I wish you formal and informal conversations, new contacts and success in everyday research."
"I came here as to the mecca of nuclear physics in order to welcome the participants of the 9th Congress," Academician-Secretary of the Department of Physiological and Biomedical Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences V. A. Tkachuk said. “I remember E. A. Krasavin, he was a member of our Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, he brought us closer to this Institute. And today, I brought letters from our department with a proposal for cooperation with JINR. It would make sense to unite the efforts of physicians, physiologists and nuclear physicists."
Director of the A. F. Tsyba Medical Radiological Research Centre (Obninsk) S. A. Ivanov conveyed greetings from Directorate of the Ministry of Health, Director General of the National Medical Research Centre of Radiology A. D. Kaprin, the entire medical community. "This Congress will be a milestone that evaluates the plans for our future work," he emphasized. “Global events, such as the Covid pandemic and others, have shown that our country should have its own experience in introducing the most advanced technologies, especially, in medicine. Today, our task is to fine-tune the relations that we will have in medicine, radiobiology, physics in the coming years. I wish you patience, energy and of course, health along the way!" Pilot-cosmonaut S. V. Avdeev, remembering the musical beginning of the day, compared the work of the Congress with a symphony called "Radiobiology" and invited all those present to gain true scientific pleasure from it.
The plenary session of the Congress was opened by the report of G. V. Trubnikov "Joint Institute for Nuclear Research - 70 years of victories and discoveries". He recalled that JINR was organized to implement fundamental research that is recorded in its charter. Talking about the work of laboratories, he focused the Congress on applied, interdisciplinary areas. Thus, the ARIADNA collaboration at the NICA Complex meets a wide range of applications from the effect of ion beams on laboratory animals to the investigation of radiation-induced degradation of the thermal properties of composite adhesives based on epoxy resin and diamond powder in order to meet space problems. The experiment of the year is currently carried out in FLNR, where they try to synthesize a new element. The most beautiful experiment of the Institute is carried out in DLNP, during the implementation of the Baikal-GVD project. In addition to fundamental ones, FLNP meets problems in the field of radioecology, uses microorganisms to remediate environmental objects, studies processes in lithium-ion batteries and carries out research in the field of materials science using Raman spectroscopy. MLIT employees develop mathematical models, pattern recognition systems, train neural networks to identify crop diseases. The capabilities of the computing complex are widely used to automate the dataset in experiments on DNA repair investigations in cell nuclei, a web service has been developed to study the spatial training of small laboratory animals exposed to radiation. In general, bioinformatics includes a large volume of tasks of the MLIT information and computing complex. Director of LRB should have told in detail about the work of LRB, so, G. V. Trubnikov dwelled on only a few points. The infrastructure of the laboratory develops: the vivarium has been modernized, together with partners, several large X-ray facilities have been purchased for the complete irradiation of laboratory animals and other investigations. He recalled the founder of the laboratory E. A. Krasavin, his colleagues, Academicians M. A. Ostrovsky and A. Yu. Rozanov, outstanding scientists involved in the development of the Laboratory's scientific programme. The speaker emphasized that LRB is the youngest laboratory and it employs women most of all at the Institute.
G. V. Trubnikov also spoke about what had happened over the past two or three years in the field of applied research. "We have launched a new DC-140 cyclotron for applied tasks in the field of solid state physics, for the production of track membranes, testing an electronic component base for the tasks of the state corporations Rosatom and Roscosmos. Beautiful interlaboratory work at the intersection of biology and nuclear physics - TARDISS project. It searches for new defense mechanisms and technologies "inspired" by extremophiles: the tardigrade protein Dsup is an effective DNA protector that we apply to a network of tunnels in track membranes to successfully isolate DNA. In the coming years, a joint project with the FMBA of the Russian Federation will be implemented to develop a specialized cyclotron for proton therapy MSC-230 - the world's first compact machine with superconducting magnets that will operate in a regular irradiation mode and in a flash therapy mode.
Another JINR initiative that we will discuss with you these days is a new radiochemical complex. We currently prepare several small projects together with FMBA, FMBC, Moscow State University, Obninsk to produce new molecules and vectors for targeted therapy, work in the field of molecular, cellular and immune sensitizers. In the next five years, we are going to develop a new specialized cyclotron for the effective generation of new radionuclides," Director of the Institute shared his plans and said that next year, he very much expects to open the Department of Radiobiology and Radiochemistry at the Dubna Branch of Moscow State University.
Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences I. B. Ushakov made a report "Space radiobiology and interplanetary flights".
"Space radiobiology answers the question: will humanity be able to live not only on Earth, but also in space?" he began his report. "In future long-term space flights, the crew will be simultaneously exposed to numerous factors: this is a factor of a closed habitat and psychophysiological factors; physical factors of interplanetary space; dynamic flight factors; conditions for staying on the Moon and Mars; radiation factors are present in virtually all of these groups. And the total number of factors reaches 70." He identified five main ones that can become an insurmountable barrier due to their adverse effect on humans. These are radiation, hypogravitation, dust, hypomagnetic and psychophysiological. "It can be argued that we are all on the verge of a new space biomedicine - the biomedicine of interplanetary flights, the main scientific sections of which will be space radiobiology and psychophysiology," the speaker highlighted. He named radiation, the sources of which are the Earth's radiation belts, as the first serious barrier; galactic cosmic radiation; stochastic sources are solar proton events that are almost impossible to predict; secondary neutron and gamma radiation. It is almost impossible to simulate such a "radiation cocktail" in an experiment, I. B. Ushakov emphasized. Moreover, strengthening the protection of the spacecraft provides a weakening of the effect of solar cosmic rays and for galactic cosmic radiation - it largely lacks.
The long-term consequences of deep space flights are radiation carcinogenesis, damage to the central nervous system, cataractogenesis, damage to reproductive function and increased aging processes. Primates are the most adequate objects of the investigation of higher nervous activity in laboratory conditions that is due to the closest proximity to humans in terms of basic properties. He spoke about an experiment on primates implemented at IBMP 15 years ago. "The brain has an unconditional sensitivity to the radiation factor," he said. "Disturbances from heavy ions that were studied in the most detail in LRB under E. A. Krasavin, are made today, develop in time. Moreover, the most sensitive to them are the cognitive structures of the brain." Radiation induction and repair of double-stranded DNA breaks in the hippocampus after exposure to krypton-78 were studied in LRB, after exposure to heavy charged particles in various structures of the hippocampus, complex clusters of double-stranded breaks were found. "E. A. Krasavin, shortly before his departure, asked me to more often focus on these unique data for the scientific audience: the passage of heavy charged particles through the genetic apparatus of the cell causes damage with a high degree of clustering. They, apparently, evaluate subsequent cognitive disorders," Igor Borisovich said.
He mentioned data from different authors in recent years on the relative biological efficiency of charged particles that resulted in the need to revise different biological limits and dose limits for cosmic radiation, especially, since such dose limits have not yet been developed for interplanetary flights. While the prospects for physical protection are rather uncertain, there are more questions than answers. Effective means of treating and preventing possible disorders of the central nervous system and preventing tumors have not yet been created. "It can be stated that there is so much harmful radiation in space that there is no single effective radioprotective agent," the speaker emphasized. "A radiobiologist should be in the crew of a long flight and in the on-board first aid kit - all the means of protection that were real at that time. There is not yet much hope that we will find a protector against heavy charged particles."
He briefly addressed other barriers to long-range spaceflight. First of all, this is a toxic dust barrier that during the Apollo mission turned out to be an unpleasant surprise for astronauts on the moon. Moon dust has increased chemical reactivity, causing effects in humans ranging from local lung irritation to lung cancer. One of the least studied barriers is hypomagnetic. Experiments carried out in the USSR showed that the nervous system suffers especially. A promising way to overcome various barriers is artificial hibernation or hypobiosis (a mode of artificial or natural energy saving, for example, hibernation in some animals). Bears strike in this regard - the abundance and effectiveness of the protective mechanisms of all body systems.
"We will continue the multifaceted investigation of deep space barriers based on what our radiobiology teachers have achieved," he urged. "We all have a serious radiobiological foundation, our teachers and predecessors have done a lot of valuable things for interplanetary and space radiobiology. Space radiation can probably be characterized by two functions - information and protective. The first is to obtain data from other parts of the universe. The second is quarantine in order to prevent other forms of life from entering other parts of the Universe. Conclusion - space radiation biomedicine in the foreseeable future will answer the global question: how justified are human ambitions to move further into outer space. Will there be a man on Mars? I think the realization of this dream is not a close prospect, but it is quite possible if we extensively work and move in the direction set by our radiobiology teachers. Successful work of our congress and new ideas in the field of radiobiology!"
Director of LRB A. N. Bugay made a report "Development of radiobiology of dense ionizing radiation: experience of JINR and leading accelerator centres of the world". "You can count on your fingers the large centres for the radiobiology of heavy charged particles," he said. - These are the USA, Germany, France, Japan, China and JINR. The geography of medical centres in which ion or proton accelerators operate, is much wider but as a rule, there is little time left for science. We can say that it is not easy to do such science today, since there is little available infrastructure and beam time. The problems facing the radiobiology of dense ionizing radiation are eternal. These are fundamental investigations in which much focus today is on the energy spectrum of radiation, as well as such a parameter as dose power, especially in radiation medicine, flash therapy. Much focus in the case of space radiobiology and medicine is on the united factors."
A. N. Bugay introduced the Congress to the JINR infrastructure, "We have almost all possible sources of ionizing radiation - these are not only accelerators, this is a reactor and we hope for a new radiochemical complex that will allow working with isotope sources. Such ample opportunities create quite comfortable conditions in terms of the choice of radiation."
Alexander Nikolaevich recalled the history of the development of radiobiology almost since the establishment of JINR - the first biological experiments were carried out in 1959 and the history of the establishment of LRB. Today, the Laboratory has a developed infrastructure: various microscopes, vivarium, systems for studying behavior, histology, tomography - both X-ray and optical, analytical investigations. "Such a serious set of tools would not have been possible if it had not relied on many years of practice and a serious research school," he emphasized. "The founder of the radiobiology of heavy charged particles in JINR and the USSR was Evgeny Krasavin that left behind a rich scientific heritage. The papers by him in different years allowed meeting the problem of relative biological efficiency, identifying the patterns and mechanisms of radiation ontogenesis. Later, he put forward a new concept of risks for manned astronautics that includes the factors of the action of cosmic rays on the astronaut's body, resulting in a violation of the functions of the central nervous system. In recent years, he has been involved in the application of his early work on radio modifiers to the development of new modern approaches in radiation and radionuclide therapy. His legacy became the basis for new LRB research. A number of fundamental investigations have been carried out that study the effects of radiation at various levels, in various applications, in particular, in radiation medicine, space radiobiology, neurophysiology and other problems. They are supported by a serious school of mathematical modeling. LRB is faced with world-class practical tasks - the investigation of radiation risks, especially, the effect of cosmic types of radiation when scheduling flights into deep space, investigating the side effects of different types of radiation and of course, developing new approaches for diagnosing cancer therapy using not only different types of radiation, but also exploiting possible mechanisms to increase tumor radiosensitivity and investigating new pathways for targeted delivery of compounds." Further, the speaker dwelled on the individual areas of the Laboratory's scientific programme.
I. B. Ushakov spoke about space radiobiology and interplanetary flights, A. N. Grebenyuk (Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Pushchino) - about the evolution of anti-radiation agents and the prospects for their development at the present stage, A. Yu. Bushmanov (FMBC named after A. I. Burnazyan) – about the advanced technologies for the treatment of acute radiation lesions, other speeches were made, from the report of A. S. Stemberg (IBMP RAS), the Congress participants learned about the most interesting biography of the founder of radiation neurophysiology I.R. Tarkhanov.
The first day of the Congress ended with the election of the president and vice-presidents of the Radiobiological Society of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The new President was Professor A. N. Grebenyuk and Vice-Presidents were Director of LRB A. N. Bugay and Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences A. N. Osipov (FMBC named after A. I. Burnazyan).
To be continued.
Olga Tarantina, photos by Elena Puzynina