Radiobiology modeling of the fate of an irradiated cell population

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Start in : March 1st 2021

Workplace : Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

Employer

As part of its missions, the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) seeks to improve understanding of the mechanisms initiated by the interaction of ionizing radiation in living organisms in order to improve risk models for healthy tissues in radiotherapy. The Ionizing Radiation Dosimetry Laboratory (LDRI) develops simulation tools for the characterization of early DNA damage based on the Monte Carlo code Geant4-DNA (geant4-dna.org) and the consequences in terms of cell fate. As a member of the Geant4-DNA collaboration, LDRI is making its developments public through this platform.
The EXPRO+ project in which the postdoctoral subject is part is led by the Geant4-DNA collaboration and addresses a request from the European Space Agency to develop multi-scale tools for risk modeling of exposures during space missions. The developments of these tools have the particularity to be made public through the Geant4-DNA code. In this project, LDRI is piloting the implementation of models for the repair of early DNA damage and is also participating in the development of a simulation chain, validated by experimental data, ranging from the characteristics of the initial beam to the probability of cell survival.
 
The mission is to study, improve and implement models for the repair of early radio induced DNA damage at the origin of cell fate.
Main activities are :

• Study of literature repair models by providing a detailed understanding of the input data and conducting sensitivity studies to determine the limits of validity.

• Development of the calculation of early DNA damage by adapting the early DNA damage simulation chain to correctly feed the selected models.

• Implementation and validation of repair models by comparison with experimental data.

Profile

• Good knowledge in radiation-matter interactions applied to radiobiology.
• Expert use of Monte-Carlo simulation tools (Geant4 is a plus).
• Good C++ programming skills.
• Ability to interact in the context of a multidisciplinary and international project.
• Communication skills in English.