The preparation of biological targets for heavy-ion experiments up to 20 MeV/u

The radiobiological effects of heavy charged particles are of fundamental interest for the understanding of radioprotection problems in manned space flights and for the increasing use of heavy ions in radiotherapy. Therefore, an increasing number of radiobiological experiments are performed at heavy-ion accelerators. In these experiments biological target such as, for instance, cultures of living mammalian cells have to be irradiated under sterile conditions and atmospheric pressure. The experimental solution of these and other biology-specific problems is discussed and a general outline of the experiments is given. (orig.)