Low-Energy Ion Beam Biotechnology at Chiang Mai University
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1181-DD09-01
Low-Energy Ion Beam Biotechnology at Chiang Mai University L.D. Yu1,2* and S. Anuntalabhochai3 1 Plasma and Beam Physics Research Facility (PBP), Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand 2 Thailand Center of Excellence in Physics, Commission on Higher Education, 328 Si Ayutthaya Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand 3 Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand (*Corresponding author: Email: [email protected]) ABSTRACT MeV-ion beam has long been applied to research and applications in biology for many decades as highly energetic ions are undoubtedly able to interact directly with biomolecules to cause biological changes. However, low-energy ion beam at tens of keV and even lower has also been found to have significant biological effects on living materials. The finding has led to applications of ion-beam induced mutation and gene transfer. From the theoretical point of view, the low-energy ion beam effects on biology are difficult to understand since the ion range is so short that the ions can hardly directly interact with the key biological molecules for the changes. This talk introduces interesting aspects of low-energy ion beam biology, including basis of ion beam biotechnology and recent developments achieved in Chiang Mai University in relevant applications such as mutation and gene transfer and investigations on mechanisms involved in the low-energy ion interaction with biological matter such as eV-keV ion beam bombardments of naked DNA and the cell envelopes. INTRODUCTION Plant seeds were carried by spacecrafts and sent to the space for mutation purpose because high-energy cosmic particles might irradiate and penetrate the seeds to induce mutation. However, scientists have found that they can achieve the same effect on the earth ground using low-energy particle bombardment of the seeds in a much cheaper, easier and more effective way. That is the initiation of the low-energy ion beam technology application in biology. Low-energy ion beam biotechnology (IBBT) is such a technique that uses energetic ion beams (a few tens of keV in energy being enough), generated and transported by an ion accelerator, to bombard biological organisms in vacuum to induce mutation breeding and gene transfer for increasing applications of the biological substance as well as to detect and analyze characteristics of biological organisms [1]. Ion beam interaction with biological living organisms is so different from that with normal solid materials. Biological organisms are living, and ion beam treatment should not kill them. Fresh cells contain a large amount of water, which essentially evaporates in vacuum, and the evaporation causes differences in the target status from that in normal atmosphere. Biological material structures are highly porous and inhomogeneous, and ions penetrate and sputter abnormally more than for normal condensed materials. The functioning structures of organisms are
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