14.12.2022

New findings on radon research: Face masks reduce radiation exposure - A simple and cheap solution can save lives

Anti-inflammatory, therapeutic effects, but also risks - the radioactive noble gas radon contains both at the same time. Radon and especially its short-living progeny are considered to be responsible for about half of the annual radiation exposure from natural sources and are classified as carcinogenic. Researchers from the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung now have proven in a paper published in the “International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health” that face masks - both FFP2 and surgical masks - strongly reduce lung exposure and thus the dose. This can provide a simple and cost-effective method of protection for people who are exposed to higher levels of radon and its progeny, such as in workplaces, for example in radongalleries or radon baths. More

25.11.2022

Christoph Schmelzer Prize awarded to three young researchers (GSI/FAIR press release)

Three young researchers have been awarded this year’s Christoph Schmelzer Prize: Dr. Veronika Flatten from the University Marburg and Dr. Timo Steinsberger from the Technical University Darmstadt receive the award in recognition of their dissertations, Christopher Cortes Garcia from the TU Darmstadt for his master’s thesis. With this award, the Association for the Promotion of Tumor Therapy with Heavy Ions e.V. annually honors outstanding master’s and doctoral theses in the field of tumor therapy with ion beams. The researchers received the award on November 24 at a ceremony on the GSI/FAIR campus in Darmstadt.

18.11.2022

FLASH review  on the cover of Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology (IF=65.011).

14.11.2022

Safety in space: Synthetic hibernation could provide protection from cosmic radiation

It is still a glimpse into the future: Astronauts could be put into artificial hibernation and in this state be better protected from cosmic radiation. At present, there are already promising approaches to follow up such considerations. An international research team led by the Biophysics Department of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum in Darmstadt now has found decisive indications of the possible benefits of artificial hibernation for radiation resistanc

17.10.2022

The Association for the Promotion of Tumor Therapy with Heavy Ions e.V awards the 24^th Christoph Schmelzer Prize for outstanding work in the field of ion beam therapy to Dr. Veronika Flatten (dissertation Univ. Marburg 2021), to Dr. Timo Steinsberger (dissertation TU-Darmstadt 2022), and to Mr. Christopher Cortes Garcia (Master Thesis TU Darmsrtadt 2022). . The award ceremony will take place on Novemmber 24, 2022 2019 at 4 p.m. in the KBW lecture hall at GSI. More

26.09.2022

Martina Quartieri won at the "47th Annual Meeting of the European Radiation Research Society“ (on 24.09.2022 in Catania ,Italien) an Award for an outstanding poster with the titel "The role of hypoxia and radiation in the  stemness of murine osteosarcoma cells"

12.09.2022

Focus on cosmic radiation research: Joint ESA-FAIR Summer School back in presence (GSI/FAIR press release)

It is a high-quality training offer for young international scientists and has already attracted large attention from the international community: Currently 19 young researchers from ten countries come together during the “ESA-FAIR Radiation Summer School 2022” to work intensively on the topic of cosmic radiation. After two years of video school, the event is back in presence in Darmstadt. The Summer School for radiation research was jointly established by the European Space Agency ESA and the international accelerator center FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research GmbH), currently being built at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung. More

31.08.2022

Kill a tumor in less than a second: FLASH radiotherapy with heavy ions (GSI/FAIR press release)

At GSI and the future accelerator center FAIR, scientists are working to improve the tumor therapy with charged particles through new technologies and treatment procedures.

The tumor therapy with charged particles is one of the most promising applications in the fight against cancer. At the existing research facility of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, as well as with the FAIR accelerator facility currently under construction here, scientists are working to improve the method through new technologies and treatment procedures and make it even more effective. Thereby, the new FLASH method is a promising way. An important step has now been…

25.07.2022

The Association for the promotion of ion therapy accepts nominations for the 24^th Christoph-Schmelzer-Award for outstanding master (diploma) theses and PhD theses related to tumor therapy with ion beams. Deadline: September 30th, 2022. More

14.07.2022

Marco Durante elected president of PTCOG  (GSI/FAIR press release) Professor Marco Durante, head of the Biophysics Research Department at GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, has been elected president of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG). The international organization is active worldwide to promote particle therapy — tumor therapy with particle beams, as developed, among others, at GSI— and thus improve overall treatment options for cancer.

20.06.2022

New cooperation between GSI/FAIR, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen and Varian aims to further advance radiation therapy (GSI/FAIR press release)

It is an important step to extend future treatment methods in the fight against cancer: The GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung, the Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen (THM) and Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company from Palo Alto, California, intend to jointly advance medical-technical developments in the field of FLASH therapy and further pave the way to clinical application. To this purpose, an agreement was concluded among the three collaborators.

27.04.2022

Our paper "Compensating for beam modulation due to microscopic lung heterogeneities in carbon ion therapy treatment planning" by Paz et al. was selected by the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) for the Farrington Daniels Best Paper Award published in the Medical Physics journal in 2021. The paper is open access and can be downloaded here: https://aapm.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mp.1529

25.04.2022

Call for Proposals for beamtime in 2023/2024

17.03.2022

ESA launched a new announcement of opportunity to perform ground-based space radiation experiments at GSI. Details are available here

25.02.2022

Bloomberg video on hibernation with Walter Tinganelli at GSI

05.01.2022

Dr. Andreas Maier has been appointed in a working group of the Strahlenschutzkommission  “Revision of ICRP Publication 103”.

04.01.2022

Dr. Tabea Pfuhl received the "Giersch Prize for an Outstanding Doctoral Thesis 2021". This prize is awarded by the Giersch Foundation and the HGS-HIRe Graduate School to outstanding young scientists for completed dissertations. She received the award for her research on the influence of secondary electrons on the enhanced biological effectiveness of ion beams. This research is relevant, for example, for the improvement of  ion beam therapy for cancer patients. Furthermore, the research results allow a more precise modeling of the biological effects after undesired radiation exposure on Earth or in space.

09.12.2021

Dr. Olga Sokol won at the FLASH Radiotherapy  Particle Therapy virtual Conference (FRPT Dec 1-3, 2021) the award for theBest Oral Presentation  with the title "In vitro measurements of proton RBE: a multi-centric comparison of experimental procedures and results".

08.12.2021

Dr. Andreas Maier won at the "46th Annual Meeting of the European Radiation Research Society“ (on 29.11.2021 in Caen, France) an Award for an outstanding poster with the titel "Radon dosimetry measurements in a patient and in mouse – a comparison"

02.12.2021

Christoph Schmelzer Prize awarded to two young researchers (GSI/FAIR press release)

Two young researchers have been awarded this year's Christoph Schmelzer Prize: Dr. Theresa Suckert from the Technical University of Dresden and German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), partner site Dresden, and Dr. Felix Horst from the University of Giessen. With this award, the Association for the Promotion of Tumor Therapy with Heavy Ions e.V. annually honors outstanding master's respectively doctoral theses in the field of tumor therapy with ion beams. More