Positive ion irradiation facility

Many questions about the mechanisms of the response of cells to ionizing radiation can best be investigated using monoenergetic heavy charged particle beams. Questions of the role of different types of damage in the LET effect, for example, are being answered by comparing repair kinetics for damage induced by electrons with that produced by helium ions. However, as the models become more sophicated, the differences between models can be detected only with more precise measurements, or by combining high- and low-LET irradiations in split-dose experiments. The design of the authors present cell irradiation beam line has limited the authors to irradiating cells in a partial vacuum. A new way to mount the dishes and bring the beam to the cells was required. Several means of irradiating cells in mylar-bottom dishes have been used at other laboratories. For example at the RARAF Facility, the dual ion experiments are done with the dish bottom serving as the beam exit window but the cells are in a partial vacuum to prevent breaking the window. These researchers have chosen instead to use the dish bottom as the beam window and to irradiate the entire dish in a single exposure. A special, very fast pumping system will be installed at the end of the beam line. This system will make it possible to irradiate cells within two minutes of installing them in the irradiation chamber. In this way, the interaction of electron and ion-induced damage in Chlamydomonas can be studied with time between doses as short as 5 minutes