Meeting report on ICRR2019, the 16th International Congress on Radiation Research

Abstract

The 16th International Congress of Radiation Research (ICRR2019) was held in Manchester, UK, in August 2019. The Congress, which is held every four years, covered a wide spectrum of topics relevant for all aspects of radiation research including basic mechanisms, translational research, radiotherapy and health effects, and ecology. Here, we provide a report of the plenary and keynote talks presented at the meeting.

Keywords:

• Radiation biology
• radiotherapy
• radiation chemistry
• DNA damage responses
• hypoxia
• high LET

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Note

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Journal of Radiation Protection: in press.

Additional information

Funding

CW is supported by the NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Center.

Notes on contributors

Kaye J. Williams

Professor Kaye J. Williams is a Leader of the Hypoxia and Therapeutics Group within the Manchester Pharmacy School (MPS), the University of Manchester. Kaye joined MPS in November 1996. Following back-to-back Research Associate and Research Fellow positions funded by the MRC, she gained tenure in January 2006, and was promoted to Chair in Experimental Therapeutics and Imaging in August 2012. Her research focuses on the tumor microenvironment, investigating therapeutic targets, vascular biology and molecular interactions that influence tumor response to radiotherapy. Kaye also leads pre-clinical imaging development within the Manchester Cancer Research Centre. Her work is funded through research councils (MRC, BBSRC, EPSRC), charities (Cancer Research UK, Breast Cancer Now, British Lung Foundation) and commercial sources via collaborations with Pharmaceutical Companies. Externally, she plays a significant role in the NCRI Clinical and Translational Radiotherapy Research Working Group, where she currently chairs the Radcom initiative that aims to expedite novel drug radiation combinations into clinical trial.

Ester M. Hammond

Ester M. Hammond’s work is focused on the unique DNA damage response (DDR), which is initiated by exposure to hypoxic (low oxygen) conditions. She is specifically focused on the levels of hypoxia at which significant radiation resistance is observed. Her goal is to identify new therapeutic strategies to increase the radiation sensitivity of hypoxic cancer cells and therefore radiotherapy outcome.

Catharine West

Catharine West is a Professor of Radiation Biology at the University of Manchester. Her research focuses on trying to predict how cancer patients respond to radiotherapy with a particular interest in measuring radiosensitivity and hypoxia. She was instrumental in setting up an international Radiogenomics Consortium, which is identifying the genetic determinants of radiotherapy toxicity. She is a chief investigator (RAPPER, REQUITE) or translational lead (NIMRAD, VORTEX, CIRCCa) for national/international studies. She is an honorary member of the Royal College of Radiology and an honorary fellow of the British Institute of Radiology. She was awarded the Weiss medal by the Association for Radiation Research in 2016 and the Bacq and Alexander award by the European Radiation Research Society in 2017. In 2018 she was made an Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Radiologists.

Rhona M. Anderson

Dr. Rhona Anderson is a radiation cytogeneticist interested in addressing health-related questions from low dose radiation exposures. Focused mainly on chromosome aberrations, she examines mechanisms of exchange formation and genomic instability and, how differing types of aberration can inform as biomarkers for radiation exposure and biomarkers of radiation effect.

Christophe Badie

Christophe Badie leads the Cancer Mechanisms and Biomarkers Group of Public Health England’s Radiation Effects Department. His work focuses on trying to better understand the mechanisms by which acute or protracted ionizing radiation exposure either of natural or medical origin interact and affect cells and tissues in terms of inter-individual radiation sensitivity and susceptibility to long-term effects such as radiation-induced cancer, particularly leukemia. His group has developed new biomarkers of radiation exposure in human blood which are now validated in vivo in humans, carry out research in cancer genomics studying mutational signatures of ionizing radiation in second malignancies and study the effects of radiation exposure on the immune system.

Penny A. Jeggo

Prof. Penny A. Jeggo studies the DNA damage responses following exposure to ionizing radiation, with a focus on the process of DNA non-homologous end-joining. She has studied the interface between double-strand break repair and damage response signaling, the distinct double-strand break repair pathways and the clinical manifestation of patients with mutations in these pathways.