fbpx Italy and the use of Synchrotron Radiation in Biomedicine | Science in the net
  1. Italy and the use of Synchrotron Radiation in Biomedicine
  2. Revisions
  3. Italy and the use of Synchrotron Radiation in Biomedicine

Italy and the use of Synchrotron Radiation in Biomedicine

di Cristina Da Rold
Pubblicato il 11/01/2014Read time: 3 mins

The University of Milano Bicocca is a member of SYRA3, a Cost Action started in 2013 concerning Innovative Methods in Radiotherapy and Radiosurgery, using Synchrotron Radiation in Biomedicine and Molecular sciences. SYRA3 focuses on brain tumors and disorders of the central nervous system, studying the power of synchrotron radiation, in particular using the Grenoble synchrotron.

A Cost Action is an initiative that allows the coordination of nationally-funded science and technology research projects. It aims to reduce the fragmentation in European research and to open the European Research Area to cooperation worldwide.  In this respect, SYRA3 is intrinsically multidisciplinary. The purpose of this project is to create a network of physicists, biologists, doctors, chemists, in order to study the potential of a tool as powerful as the synchrotron. “Until now," says Guido Cavaletti, Head of the Experimental Neurology Unit of University of Milano Bicocca and Program Manager for Short Term Scientific Missions for SYRA3, "there was not so much collaboration between physicists, biologists and physicians. Each researcher working at the synchrotron follows its specific research and it is difficult to communicate because of the different languages spoken within the different branches of science.”

"For instance, in neuroscience," explains Cavaletti, "using a synchrotron allows to focus the radiation at a single point, bringing with it significant benefits from the medical perspective, but how it happens belongs to the field of physics. It is therefore clear that a collaboration between the different sciences is required when, as in this case, we get a beneficial effect from synchrotron radiation and we need to understand how and why the phenomenon occurs from a physical point of view.

“The project started recently and we are only just beginning”, says Cavaletti. SYRA3 involves as many as 14 European countries and Italy, with the University of Milan Bicocca, is one of the promoters. “It is not easy to find a synchrotron in European laboratories – adds Cavaletti – but in the future we will make enormous strides toward a technology equally powerful that can enter into our daily lives. Within a few years in Europe there will be many sources similar to the size of the magnetic resonance imaging but with the same power of the synchrotron, and placed in hospital.”

These future prospects seem to justify the economic investment in SYRA3 and the enthusiasm of researchers. Last October there was the kick off meeting in France and next April there will be the first conference in Poland, where the first projects of SYRA 3 will be presented. Funding for the first year amounted to 160-170 thousand euro, which had to cover the cost of the kick off and of the training activities of the students involved. A subsequent funding will vary depending on the use that is made of previous, but in principle they will tend to grow over the next five years.


Scienza in rete è un giornale senza pubblicità e aperto a tutti per garantire l’indipendenza dell’informazione e il diritto universale alla cittadinanza scientifica. Contribuisci a dar voce alla ricerca sostenendo Scienza in rete. In questo modo, potrai entrare a far parte della nostra comunità e condividere il nostro percorso. Clicca sul pulsante e scegli liberamente quanto donare! Anche una piccola somma è importante. Se vuoi fare una donazione ricorrente, ci consenti di programmare meglio il nostro lavoro e resti comunque libero di interromperla quando credi.


  • 9105 reads

prossimo articolo

Why have neural networks won the Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry?

di Chiara Sabelli
Pubblicato il 15/10/2024

This year, Artificial Intelligence played a leading role in the Nobel Prizes for Physics and Chemistry. More specifically, it would be better to say machine learning and neural networks, thanks to whose development we now have systems ranging from image recognition to generative AI like Chat-GPT. In this article, Chiara Sabelli tells the story of the research that led physicist and biologist John J. Hopfield and computer scientist and neuroscientist Geoffrey Hinton to lay the foundations of current machine learning.

Image modified from the article "Biohybrid and Bioinspired Magnetic Microswimmers" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/smll.201704374

Physics

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John J. Hopfield, an American physicist and biologist from Princeton University, and to Geoffrey Hinton, a British computer scientist and neuroscientist from the University of Toronto, for utilizing tools from statistical physics in the development of methods underlying today's powerful machine learning technologies.