While radiation is commonly used to induce cellular damage, the usual sources of radiation lack the ability to target individual cells or specific components of a cell. A microbeam is a micrometer or sub-micrometer diameter beam of radiation, that allows damage to be precisely inflicted at specific locations within a biological target. In this way, the effect of radiation on specific cellular functions can be evaluated. Microbeam is particularly useful for studying cell-cell interactions in heterogeneous cellular populations since it can target single cells without reaching the neighboring cells.  

Prof. Tatjana Paunesku is a Research Associate Professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Radiation Oncology Department, in Chicago, USA. Her research interests include radiation biology and nanotechnology, as well as design and construction of novel research devices. These include a custom-made microbeam, as well as Bionanoprobe - a new instrument enabling high-throughput and high-resolution imaging that co-registers both biological material and nanoconstructs.  

Workshop program

 Day 1 (April 11^th, beginning at 2 pm): Microbeam – introduction

Day 2 (April 12^th, beginning at 2 pm): Analysis of three scientific articles where microbeam had  been applied

Day 3 (April 13^th, beginning at 2 pm): Examples of the data obtained at microbeam and data analysis

Day 4 (April 14^th, beginning at 2 pm): Exercise in designing microbeam experiments

Day 5 (April 26^th, beginning at 2 pm): Brainstorming – generation of ideas for experiments using microbeam (only for Biology of Robustness group)