NUI GALWAY (NUIG) is participating in a €3.5 million research project on screening exposure to radiation. The three-year project is an EU initiative to protect citizens’ security in the event of “malevolent” radiation.
Named Booster, standing for Bio Dosimetric Tools for Triage and Responders, the project hopes to devise faster screening procedures.
Standard methods involve taking samples of body fluids and examining them under a microscope to see if there has been any change in chromosomes. This can take up to three days. Researchers in biochemistry at NUIG have been working since 2004 on ways of reducing the time it takes to determine the amount of radiation which a person may have been exposed to.
This research will be applied in the first phase of the European project, according to NUIG centre for chromosome biology lecturer Ciaran Morrison. The research team believes that by counting the centrosomes – which are sub-cellular structures that control how cells divide and which multiply after irradiation – it may be possible to reduce the waiting time for test results to less than a day.
“There is urgency in triaging people exposed to radiation because it is necessary to quickly identify those who need no further intervention, those who will require close follow-up, and those who will require hospitalisation,” said Mr Morrison.
The research at NUIG is funded by Science Foundation Ireland and the Health Research Board.