High-precision dosimetry for ultra-short, high dose-rate irradiation sources

这些项目旨在开发和测试新的高精度剂量测量方法，在生物样品的新照射方式下进行，最终目的是建立新的放射治疗癌症治疗方案。我们小组最近开展的工作表明，激光驱动的电子束和光子束可以达到前所未有的细胞对辐射的反应范围，显然有可能为接受放射治疗的患者提供显著的好处。特别是，我们已经证明了在超短时间尺度上发射伽玛级辐射的可能性，可调范围从几十皮秒到几十飞秒，导致突破性的剂量率在10^11-10^14 Gy/S的范围内，远远超过最近发现的闪光效应。值得注意的是，我们小组开展的初步工作显示了健康细胞和肿瘤细胞反应的新特征，健康组织的节约率和对肿瘤细胞的杀伤力显著增加。为了继续朝着这个方向工作，并准确地确定超短辐射对细胞的影响，必须对体外和体内样本进行精确的剂量测量。虽然剂量学技术和诊断适用于相对较长的照射时间，但必须进行详细的工作，以建立亚皮秒级别的精确剂量学技术。国家物理实验室(NPL)的Giuseppe Schettino教授团队是剂量学领域的世界领先者，负责制定和维护英国的初级剂量学标准，并将其分发给所有英国放射治疗中心。因此，我们计划与他们合作研究超快剂量学，这将在放射生物学和癌症治疗中产生深远的影响。成功的学生将由我和Schettino教授共同监督，虽然他们将在昆士兰州立大学的大部分时间里工作，但他们将在NPL找到实习机会。这项在辐射产生和应用方面的前沿工作将使学生获得广泛的尖端物理和工程技术方面的专业知识，例如产生激光驱动的超快辐射源、表征它们以及开发剂量学技术。这项工作自然符合我的研究兴趣，从激光驱动辐射和粒子源的应用方面从研究委员会获得的持续资金就证明了这一点(在过去10年中，从研究委员会获得的关于这一主题的资金总额为1000万英镑)。这项研究还将补充提交给EPSRC的这一领域的研究建议(与NPL作为项目合作伙伴)，计划在2023年上半年与药学院和癌症研究与细胞生物学中心合作提交(预计总价值为150万GB&gt；)。拟议的工作也自然与昆士兰大学内部的关键研究优先事项保持一致，例如，最近建立的先进制造业创新中心和高级临床医疗卓越研究所。

The projects aims at developing and testing new methods for high-precision dosimetry in a novel regime of irradiation of biological samples, with the final aim of establishing a new scheme for radiotherapeutic cancer treatment.Recent work carried out by our group has demonstrated that laser-driven electron and photon beams can access unprecedented regimes of cell response to radiation, with the clear potential to provide significant benefit to patients undergoing radiotherapeutic treatment. In particular, we have demonstrated the possibility of delivering Gy-scale irradiations over ultra-short temporal scales, tuneable from tens of picoseconds down to tens of femtoseconds, resulting in ground-breaking dose rates in the range of 10^11 - 10^14 Gy/s, well beyond the recently discovered FLASH effect. Notably, preliminary work carried out by our group has demonstrated novel features in the response of both healthy and tumour cells, with a significant increase in sparing of healthy tissues and increase in cell killing for tumour cells.In order to continue work in this direction, and precisely establish the effects of ultra-short irradiation on cells, it is mandatory to have precise measurements of the dose delivered to both in-vitro and in-vivo samples. While dosimetric techniques and diagnostics are well established for relatively long irradiation times, detailed work must be done to establish techniques for precise dosimetry at the sub-picosecond level. The group of Prof. Giuseppe Schettino at the National Physics Laboratory (NPL) is a world-leader in dosimetry, and responsible for developing and maintaining the UK primary dosimetry standard which are disseminated to all UK radiotherapy centres. We thus plan to team up with them to study ultra-fast dosimetry that can have deep and far-reaching repercussions in radiobiology and cancer treatment. The successful student will be jointly supervised by myself and Prof. Schettino and, while they will be based for the majority of their time at QUB, they will have placements at NPL. This work at the frontier of both radiation generation and applications will allow the student to gain expertise in a wide range of cutting-edge physical and engineering techniques, such as generating laser-driven ultra-fast radiation sources, characterising them, and developing dosimetric techniques. This work naturally aligns with my research interests, as demonstrated by the sustained funding obtained from research councils on the application of laser-driven radiation and particle sources (£ >10M overall funding secured from research councils in the last 10 years on this topic). This studentship will also complement a research proposal to EPSRC in this area (with NPL as project partner), planned to be submitted in the first half of 2023 in collaboration with the School of Pharmacy and the Centre for Cancer Research & Cell Biology (expected overall value £ >1.5M).The proposed work also naturally aligns with key research priorities within QUB, as demonstrated, for example, by the recent establishment of the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre, and the Institute for Research Excellence in Advanced Clinical Healthcare.