Radiation damage studies on water-embedded biomolecules

The current increasing social and corporate interest in proton- and heavy ion-therapy of malignant tumors now results in the construction of first particle treatment centers. The chemical and biological aspects of biological radiation damage have been studied in great detail. However, little is known about biological radiation action on the molecular level and fs-timescales. First studies focused on gas phase DNA related molecules and neglected influences of the chemical environment. To investigate these influences we built an electrospray ionization (ESI) source to form clusters from DNA molecules surrounded by water. Cooling and mass selection in a RF quadrupole ion trap ensures sufficient cluster density. After keV-ion irradiation collision products are extracted from the trap into a time-of-flight mass spectrometer