COST Action P9

RAdiation DAMage in biomolecular systems

Conference Scope

The COST Action RADAM was established by the COST Physics Committee as its ninth Action Programme (P9) in 2002. Funded for 4 years it has been ratified by 14 European countries and was formally launched in November 2003. Its main objective is to obtain a detailed understanding of the fundamental interaction processes initiated by the deposition of various types of radiation in biological material. This also introduces the exciting prospect that it may be possible to manipulate the effects of ionizing radiation at a molecular level within the cell.

A wide range of complementary experimental and theoretical expertise is brought together under this Programme. The research requires interdisciplinary approaches to the interaction of photons, ions and electrons with bio-molecular systems. The elucidation of fundamental energy transfer and coupling mechanisms, ionization, charge transport, and reaction behaviour will in turn be used to develop models of track structures in irradiated media. Such models can be used to determine a more reliable quantification of human epidemiological experience when subject to low radiation doses.