Radiobiology with laser-accelerated very-high-energy electrons
A team of LOA’s APPLI group, led by Camilla Giaccaglia, Emilie Bayart and Alessandro Flacco, in collaboration with Institut Curie, has published a first comprehensive radiobiological evaluation of laser-accelerated very high energy electrons (VHEE) in Advances in Radiation Oncology. They demonstrate that VHEE beams generated by laser-plasma accelerators (LPAs) produce biological effects comparable to those of conventional electron beams across cellular, tissue, and whole-organism models.
Using LOA’s Salle Jaune laser system, the researchers delivered VHEE beams with a mean energy of 140 MeV to human fibroblast cells, mouse lung slices, and zebrafish embryos, comparing their effects to a conventional 7 MeV electron beam. Across all models, from cell viability and tissue replication to developmental toxicity, the team observed no significant differences between the two irradiation modalities. These results demonstrate the feasibility of performing reproducible radiobiological studies with laser-plasma accelerators and support their potential for future clinical applications.
Effects of radiation on zebrafish embryos: (left) Representative microscope images of zebrafish embryos 5 days after irradiation, showing normal development in nonirradiated embryos (0 Gy) and increased spinal curvature following exposure to 9 Gy of laser-accelerated VHEE. (right) Normalized body length decreases with increasing radiation dose for both laser-accelerated VHEE (green) and conventional electron beams (blue), with no significant differences observed between the two irradiation modalities.
Find the open-access publication here: