Julianna Krasowska
supervisor: Teodor Buchner
The purpose of my work is to analyze intracellular processes, with particular focus on the processes that occur in cells exposed to ionizing radiation, and to develop a model implementing these effects while preserving their stochastic nature.
The knowledge and understanding of the effects of ionizing radiation on cells is particularly important in radiation protection (radiation accidents), epidemiology (effects of an increased radiation background) and oncology (radiation therapy).
The effects of ionizing radiation on cells have been studied for many years, and while the effects of high doses of radiation are relatively well understood and described, the phenomena associated with low doses, such as the adaptive response or the bystander effect, are still quite mysterious for us. One of the important effects of ionizing radiation, which the model being developed will implement, is the induction of mutations and carcinogenesis in cells, which can occur even after a long time after exposure to radiation. Therefore, to simulate the long-term effects of ionizing radiation, it is important to take into account natural cellular processes such as spontaneous damage and repair, cell death and proliferation.
The present model implements all the mentioned effects in a simplified way, but it is important to choose the right functions to best describe these processes. Which will be the next part of my work.