The Biomedical Research Center of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (BMC SAS) has become a member of the international network «RENEB», which helps connect the capacities of leading radiobiological laboratories in Europe in the event of a large-scale radiation accident, such as a nuclear power plant disaster or a nuclear weapon explosion. RENEB, or “Running the European Network of Biological and Retrospective Physical Dosimetry”, is a long-term project of the European Union. Its members are respected institutions from Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Norway, and other countries.
The Department of Radiobiology of the BMC SAS became part of this network as one of the few such workplaces in Central Europe. It has now for the first time engaged in an international exercise on cytogenetic biodosimetry together with 17 other institutions from 13 countries that are members of the network.
“This membership not only means an international recognition from our colleagues abroad, but also brings an essential confidence in our preparedness and capacities to provide necessary biodosimetry service for public in case of a large-scale radiation accident. The feeling that we are not alone facing a disaster gives us psychological strength and builds up our confidence,” said Dr. Volodymyr Vinnikov from the Department of Radiobiology at the BMC SAS, who is responsible for communicating with the RENEB.
This topic is personal to him – joining the RENEB network has long been his dream. “In the 1990s, I worked at the Institute of Medical Radiology in Kharkiv which was the main dispensing point for evacuees from 30-km Chernobyl zone and clean-up workers of the ‘hot’ period after the Chernobyl NPP catastrophe. I talked a lot to the staff members, who actually carried out the first medical examinations of the hundreds of exposed individuals at that time, and realized how challenging this task can be for applied radiobiology,” says Dr. Vinnikov.
Based on the experience of Chernobyl and Fukushima, it became clear that no single laboratory in the world has sufficient capacity to cope with a large-scale radiation accident. “The solution is combining human and technical resources, the expertise and efforts from several laboratories, which follow the same standard methodology,“ explains Dr. Vinnikov.
The Department of Radiobiology of the BMC SAS has significant expertise needed in the area of biodosimetry. It is an applied branch of clinical radiobiology focused on the assessment of the absorbed dose of ionizing radiation using indicators found in biological material. Biodosimetry evaluates cytogenetic or chromosomal damage caused by radiation, which can be visually identified in cultured human blood lymphocytes. This type of dosimetry is very important in selecting the right treatment tactics for overexposed patients, but also for calculating the risk of late effects of radiation, especially cancer.
The cytogenetic techniques have been established at the radiobiology department by Dr. Sachin Gulati for quite a long time. Over the past three years Dr. Vinnikov has refined this methodology into a reliable system for practical biodosimetry.
The department has constructed and successfully tested in practice a calibration curve for chromosomal aberrations in accordance with the recommendations of the International Atomic Energy Agency and the requirements of the international standard (ISO 19234:2023). Due to this, BMC SAS can now provide professional services on radiation dose assessment by the means of biodosimetry in a wide range of scenarios of radiation exposure.
Contacts:
Ela Rybárová, PR manager BMC SAS, tel. č.: +421 911 744 756
Dr. Volodymyr Vinnikov, independent researcher, Department of Radiobiology, BMC SAS, e-mail: volodymyr.vinnikov@savba.sk
Text and photo: Dr. Volodymyr Vinnikov, BMC SAS; E. Rybárová, BMC SAS