Rapid biodosimetry for accurate assessment of individual radiation exposure levels

In the event of an intentional or accidental release of ionizing radiation, it will be critical to have rapid triage assessment tools to evaluate the health of mission-critical personnel and to make effective use of available medical and emergency resources. However, assessment of whole body radiation dosage is challenging and established methods rely on visual manifestations, blood sampling and sophisticated laboratory tests that require multiple days for accurate analysis. To overcome the challenges of measuring whole body radiation exposure, Radiation Monitoring Devices, Inc. (RMD) will seek to design and assemble a field-ready biodosimeter for triage assessment of warfighters based on a simple optical method. The instrument will utilize the physiological changes caused by radiation injury as biomarkers for assessing whole-body exposure. In combination with data analysis, it offers the promise of rapid and non-invasive screening of large, diverse populations. The exploratory research performed under this grant will validate the dose assessment at time points less than 24 hours following controlled gamma-ray radiation exposure in living rat models. Information from these studies will be used to guide the design of a field-ready instrument for consistent and real-time whole body ionizing radiation dose measurements in humans.