An ultra-thin Schottky diode as a transmission particle detector for biological microbeams

Combined ion beam irradiation platform and 3D fluorescence microscope for cellular cancer research

To improve particle radiotherapy, we need a better understanding of the biology of radiation effects, particularly in heavy ion radiation therapy, where global responses are observed despite energy deposition in only a subset of cells. Here, we integrated a high-speed swept confocally-aligned planar excitation (SCAPE) microscope into a focused ion beam irradiation platform to allow real-time 3D structural and functional imaging of living biological samples during and after irradiation. We demonstrate dynamic imaging of the acute effects of irradiation on 3D cultures of U87 human glioblastoma cells, revealing characteristic changes in cellular movement and intracellular calcium signaling following ionizing irradiation.

Single α-particle irradiation permits real-time visualization of RNF8 accumulation at DNA damaged sites

As well as being a significant source of environmental radiation exposure, α-particles are increasingly considered for use in targeted radiation therapy. A better understanding of α-particle induced damage at the DNA scale can be achieved by following their tracks in real-time in targeted living cells. Focused α-particle microbeams can facilitate this but, due to their low energy (up to a few MeV) and limited range, α-particles detection, delivery, and follow-up observations of radiation-induced damage remain difficult. In this study, we developed a thin Boron-doped Nano-Crystalline Diamond membrane that allows reliable single α-particles detection and single cell irradiation with negligible beam scattering. The radiation-induced responses of single 3 MeV α-particles delivered with focused microbeam are visualized in situ over thirty minutes after irradiation by the accumulation of the GFP-tagged RNF8 protein at DNA damaged sites.

Single proton counting at the RIKEN cell irradiation facility

We present newly developed tapered capillaries with a scintillator window, which enable us to count single protons at the RIKEN cell irradiation setup. Their potential for performing single proton irradiation experiments at our beamline setup is demonstrated with CR39 samples, showing a single proton detection fidelity of 98%.

The cytoplasm as a radiation target: an in silico study of microbeam cell irradiation

We performed in silico microbeam cell irradiation modelling to quantitatively investigate ionisations resulting from soft x-ray and alpha particle microbeams targeting the cytoplasm of a realistic cell model. Our results on the spatial distribution of ionisations show that as x-rays are susceptible to scatter within a cell that can lead to ionisations in the nucleus, soft x-ray microbeams may not be suitable for investigating the DNA damage response to radiation targeting the cytoplasm alone. In contrast, ionisations from an ideal alpha microbeam are tightly confined to the cytoplasm, but a realistic alpha microbeam degrades upon interaction with components upstream of the cellular target. Thus it is difficult to completely rule out a contribution from alpha particle hits to the nucleus when investigating DNA damage response to cytoplasmic irradiation. We find that although the cytoplasm targeting efficiency of an alpha microbeam is better than that of a soft x-ray microbeam (the probability of stray alphas hitting the nucleus is 0.2% compared to 3.6% for x-rays), stray alphas produce more ionisations in the nucleus and thus have greater potential for initiating damage responses therein. Our results suggest that observed biological responses to cytoplasmic irradiation include a small component that can be attributed to stray ionisations in the nucleus resulting from the stochastic nature of particle interactions that cause out-of-beam scatter. This contribution is difficult to isolate experimentally, thus demonstrating the value of the in silico approach.

Optofluidic cell manipulation for a biological microbeam

This paper describes the fabrication and integration of light-induced dielectrophoresis for cellular manipulation in biological microbeams. An optoelectronic tweezers (OET) cellular manipulation platform was designed, fabricated, and tested at Columbia University's Radiological Research Accelerator Facility (RARAF). The platform involves a light induced dielectrophoretic surface and a microfluidic chamber with channels for easy input and output of cells. The electrical conductivity of the particle-laden medium was optimized to maximize the dielectrophoretic force. To experimentally validate the operation of the OET device, we demonstrate UV-microspot irradiation of cells containing green fluorescent protein (GFP) tagged DNA single-strand break repair protein, targeted in suspension. We demonstrate the optofluidic control of single cells and groups of cells before, during, and after irradiation. The integration of optofluidic cellular manipulation into a biological microbeam enhances the facility's ability to handle non-adherent cells such as lymphocytes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that OET cell handling is successfully implemented in a biological microbeam.