Host: The Japan Radiation Research Society
Co-host: Asian Association for Radiation Research
Radiation research includes three disciplines. Mechanistic studies of radiation effects try to correlate the primary radio-physical processes to the final biological outcome. Medical applications of the knowledge of basic radiation biology are another expanding field in the era of ever increasing medical use of radiations. Risk evaluation of low dose and low dose rate radiation is the major concern of the society where radiation use is widespread in our modern life and this is a field where basic radiobiology can again of great importance. Thus, radiation research is a field where basic science is combined with applied science. Furthermore, the field can extend even into social science. Historically, radiation research started around 1950 when researchers tried to understand biological effect of radiation through the knowledge of basic physical processes of radiation action. The field then moved into the kinetical studies of tissue culture cells and thereafter expanded to the analyses of radiation effects on whole body systems. Among many of these studies, research on DNA repair expanded rapidly with the extensive use of molecular technologies and now the resulting damage response field is now integral to the basic life science. For these expansions of the field, reverse genetics played a significant role. At the same time, it is becoming clearer that the forward genetics approach can plays an important role in radiation research. For example, in order to solve one of the fundamental issues of low dose and low dose rate radiation risk, one has to know how mutation is induced in the cells in tissues and what could be the fate of the mutant cells. Advanced technology of embryo manipulation enables us to construct sophisticated systems which are expected to give exact answers to previously unsolved questions. In my lecture, I would like to discuss how we can make radiation research as science for the future.
