NUCENG 262
Radiobiology
Radiobiology is concerned with the action of ionizing radiation on biological tissues and living organisms. It combines two disciplines: radiation physics and biology. Radiobiology combines our understanding of ionizing radiation and molecular biology, and is a required knowledge for health physicists, radiation biologists and medical physicists. This course will provide such knowledge for a diverse group of students with need in either disciplines. This course represents one of the requisites for the Joint UC Berkeley-UC San Francisco Medical Physics Certificate Program.
Topics
- This course is designed for Nuclear Engineering students and in particular those pursuing a Medical Physics Certificate with knowledge essential to radiobiology. Students will learn about the history of radiation effects, epidemiology of radiation and evidence of cancer in populations. They will be exposed to the multi-scale complexity of the tissue response to ionizing radiation from the whole organism to individual cells and down to the DNA. Molecular biology describing the cellular response and the DNA repair mechanisms will be covered, with an emphasis on cell kinetics such as recovery processes and cell cycle sensitivity. The overall tissue response will also be discussed with an effort to distinguish acute and delayed effects. Radiation risk models and their impact on limits will be introduced and described in the context of past and current research. A group project will be expected from students and computer models will be turned in at the end of the semester, either focusing on cancer risk tools, epidemiologic analysis, radiation cancer models or cancer treatment by radiation. The project should give students strong foundation to tackle more advanced risk models or dynamic cancer models.
- By the end of the class, students should: - Be proficient in the main mechanisms describing the interaction of ionizing radiation with tissue; - Be able to know the existing gaps in this field and where more research is needed; - Understand how radiation affects DNA and leads to gene mutation - Understand how cancer rises from various radiation damage in the tissue (targeted and non-targeted effects) - Able to write computer model for radiation risk assessment - Able to write computer model for cancer formation - Understand the main methods to treat cancer with radiation - Can differentiate tissue effect between low and high LET - Understand the various risk issues dealing with radiation: occupational (medical, nuclear worker, astronauts ...), vs population (accident, terrorism ...) - Be able to read scientific articles in the radiation biology field
Official catalogue course objectives and student learning outcomes
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027