The research team from the Department of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Granada (UGR), together with the Department of Radiology at the Hospital Virgen de las Nieves in Granada, have designed a portable and low-cost device which can measure the ionizing radiation someone is exposed to, for example, during radiotherapy.

Gene therapy administered intravenously could be an effective agent to protect vital organs and tissues from the effects of ionizing radiation in the event of large-scale exposure from a radiological or nuclear bomb, according to an animal study presented today by University of Pittsburgh researchers at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Los Angeles.

While magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is already well established as a premiere non-invasive imaging technology, patients with implantable pacemakers, implantable cardiac devices, neurostimulators and other medical devices are often denied the evaluation their medical situation urgently requires. Why? The simple fact is that device safety is still an issue: People with implantable devices cannot undergo MRI.

In a new study published online in the open access journal PLoS Biology, Michael J. Daly, Ph.D., associate professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU), and colleagues show that the ability of the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to endure and survive enormous levels of ionizing radiation (X-rays and gamma-rays) relies on a powerful mechanism that protects proteins from oxidative damage during irradiation.