MARIE CURIE PRIZE - LOW RADIATION

MARIE CURIE PRIZE - 2011

Carmel MOTHERSILL (Ireland)

The “Marie Curie Prize”, created on the initiative of the World Council of Nuclear Workers – WONUC and of the Low Radiation International Network – LOWRAD, is intended as a reward for scientific research and work whose goal is the improvement of scientific knowledge concerning the effects of low and very low doses of ionising radiation on human beings and biotopes.

Since the tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the vast majority of scientific work undertaken on the subject of ionising radiation has been aimed solely at proving its noxiousness. Regardless of scientific truth, the vast majority of this work has thus been grounded in mistaken dogma; dogma nevertheless which had the advantage of satisfying the advocates of the “ecologically politically correct” for whom any dose received is noxious, as effects do not fade over time.

This obduracy has consequently precluded all work seeking to highlight the possible beneficial effects of ionising radiation and to analyse the possible adaption and repair mechanisms that it might produce, depriving the scientific community of fundamental knowledge necessary for pursuing the fight against the different forms of cancer. By making the acquisition of this knowledge impossible, these obscurantist pressure groups may be considered responsible for the low success met with hitherto in the fight against cancer.

This absurd representation has fostered the outbreak of massive campaigns denigrating the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, which is now recognised as the sole genuine solution to the double challenge of the increasing global demand for energy and the protection of our environment.

Under the iron rule of this revisionist anti-nuclear perspective, it is no longer the most probable theories, supported by carefully conducted experiments, which serve as a basis for scientific research, but rather political dogma. Science has been drafted into the service of the state, of more precisely, its ideology. Alas! too numerous are the scientists, Lyssenko’s spiritual offspring, whose work receives considerable financing to do research conditioned by thinking, pandering to the idea of a ravaged ecology, that is bent on transforming statistical correlations into causal explanations, in apparent obeisance to the famous principle coined by Ivan Vladimirovitch Mitchourine (1855-1935): “Science should be entirely organised solely upon the basis of doctrine.”

In courageous opposition to this indefensible position with regard to scientific research, and recalling the lessons of our great forbears, for whom “the poison is in the dose, not in the poison” (Gallien), Ludwig Feinendegen dared to undertake work making it possible to correctly appreciate the relationship between dose and effect in many areas of toxicology and biology, and to highlight numerous examples of the hormesis phenomenon.

The Marie Curie Prize is awarded to Carmel MOTHERSILL for her research contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms which run the effects of ionizing radiation to humans and the environment following low-dose exposures, in the general framework of cancerogenesis and her discovery of the bystander effect.

The Marie Curie Prize lecture will be given during the official Reward Ceremony during LOWRAD Int. Conference 2011, at Kiev

Carmel Mothersill

Professor of Biology, MacMaster University, Hadmilton, Canada

BSc. (Zoology, 2.1) from University College Dublin in 1972, PhD in 1976 from University College Dublin and The Agricultural Institute, Dunsinea, Dublin

Research Assistant in the Meat Dept., National Food Centre, The Agricultural Institute - effects of ante-mortem stress on rates of post-mortem glycolysis and subsequent meat quality (1972 - 1976).

Research Assistant, Biological Records Centre, Conservation and Amenity Section, The Planning Authority, - surveying sites of special scientific interest, identification of flowering plants, lichens, and several invertebrate animal groups (1976 - 1977). Post Doctoral Fellow, Dept. Physics, Dublin Institute of Technology, (DIT), Dublin. -assay of biological effects of radiation, including survival assays and models, cell culture, dosimetry (1977 - 1980).

Post Doctoral Research at St. Luke's Hospital, Radiotherapy Centre, Dublin - tumour culture and radiobiology (1980 -1983).

Lecturer in Medical Physics and Radiation Biology, Dept Physics, Dublin Institute of Technology, seconded half-time to run the Radiation Research Group at St. Luke's Hospital and later at the Nuclear Energy Board, Dublin (1983 - 1995). Scientific Director of the Radiation and Environmental Science Centre at DIT (1995 - 2004). She joined the MacMaster University in 2004.

Research Interests
Overall interest in the mechanisms involved in radiation carcinogenesis. Identification of early events in radiation carcinogenesis and in the development of methods and ultimately, test kits for their detection in human and animal systems. Study of the mechanisms involved in genomic instability, and their relevance to repair of radiation damage and radiation carcinogenesis. Identification of early radiation induced genetic/molecular damage in humans. Comparative effects of UV and ionising radiation on aquatic and terrestrial species.

In her research, she studies the effects of low-dose exposures to cells derived from humans and other species. She is interested in the long-term changes in the behaviour of cells; changes, for example, in how they grow and how they communicate. The information derived from her research helps put radiation risks in context given the benefits of the medical use of radiation. In addition her research is used to help detect potential problems by using sensitive tests that employ cultured cells and small tissue explants and do not involve experiments on animals.

Dr. Mothersill's research suggests that low doses of radiation have very different effects compared to high doses. Cells appear to be able to adapt to low doses and to organize cell and tissue responses through sophisticated communication systems. The death of one or two cells in the population, which could be a consequence of low-dose exposure, is therefore not a problem for the tissue. As she explores this issue, Dr. Mothersill is also looking at the relative sensitivities of individual humans and non-human species to low-dose exposures to see if any are extra-sensitive and whether exposure to a little radiation is dangerous.