Simulation of Interactions of Radiation
with Biological Systems at the Cellular and DNA Level

The Geant4-DNA portion of this web site has been preserved for historical memory; it is not further updated.
The Geant4-related research activity at INFN Genova is now configured in a wider scope project,
which also encompasses aspects related to Geant4-DNA.

Estimating cancer risk for human exposures to space radiation is a challenge which involves a wide range of knowledge in physics, chemistry, biology and medicine.

Traditionally, the biological effects of radiation are analysed in top-bottom order, i.e. evaluation of the absorbed macroscopic radiation dose at a given location in the biological tissue is translated to the degree of danger it presents, and dose limits are consequently set that are considered to be acceptable.

A novel approach, based on the new-generation object-oriented Geant4 Monte Carlo Toolkit, proceeds in a reverse order, from bottom to top, by analysing the nano-scale effects of energetic particles at the cellular and DNA molecule level.

This project is sponsored by the European Space Agency (ESA) and is pursued by a multidisciplinary European team of biologists, physicians, physicists, space scientists and software engineers.

  Pictures courtesy of ESA
Last modified - Maria Grazia Pia