Poster Presenter

NIAID/NIH Radiation/Nuclear Medical Countermeasures Research and Development Program
N. Ramakrishnan, M. Norman, A.DiCarlo, D. Cassatt, N. Hafer, F. Macchiarini, B. Maidment, and R. Hatchett
USA

The NIH/NIAID medical countermeasures program develops devices and drugs to diagnose, mitigate and treat acute and delayed radiation injury to several physiological systems that can result from accidental, intentional radiation exposure and/or radiation therapy. It is a basic and translational research program with a strong emphasis on product development. Several grants, contracts and interagency agreements are funded through this program. Significant advances have already been made in the treatment of radiation-induced hematopoietic, gastrointestinal, lung and skin injuries. Several high-throughput biodosimetry techniques and devices are being developed for prompt and accurate individual radiation dose- assessment. These include 1) high-throughput, robotics-controlled automated image acquisition systems capable of analyzing 30,000 samples per day; 2) a biodosimetry tool with a fully integrated biochip and an integrated micro/nanofluidic cartridge that can perform whole-blood microarrays for radiation-injury-specific gene expression signatures; 3) a portable biodosimeter based on radiation-induced metabolomics expression signatures; 4) hand-held lateral flow diagnostics based on radiation-induced protein biomarkers; and 5) a hand-held EPR dosimeter using nails, hair and tooth chips. The projects are conducting basic research to identify biomarkers of radiation damage as well as developing devices and treatment strategies, and translate basic knowledge to products for public use.