A training course for the IRSE staff (Laura Kenzhina, Dina Biakhmetova and Aigul Mamyrbayeva) was held at ENEA from 18 to 30 July 2022. The two-week course was organised at ENEA Casaccia Research Center, Laboratory Health and Environment (Rome, Italy) by the ENEA staff (Antonella Testa, Clarice Patrono and Valentina Palma). The training course included theoretical lessons on biological dosimetry and a practical laboratory session dedicated to the comparison between the novel combined protocol developed within BioPhyMeTRE project and the two standard methods for the dicentric assay (DCA) and the micronucleus test (MN), performed on blood samples irradiated ex vivo with different gamma-ray doses. In the practical session the IRSE staff learned the novel combined biodosimetry method protocol and improved the standard techniques of DCA and MN. The practical training also included experiment planning, study of experimental conditions of irradiation, sample exposure to radiation, lymphocyte culturing and preparation, staining and microscope analysis of slides for chromosome damage evaluation.
These skills will be used by the IRSE laboratory in the later phases of BioPhyMeTRE project and in the future routine work.
During the course the IRSE staff visited the Calliope 60Co gamma irradiation facility at the ENEA Casaccia Research Center.
In addition, a scientific visit of ENEA and IRSE teams to the ISS laboratory of Core Facilities was organised. During the visit the activities and the techniques applied in the laboratory to different research fields (optically stimulated luminescence, thermoluminescence and electron paramagnetic resonance) were described by ISS staff members Emanuela Bortolin, Paola Fattibene and Maria Cristina Quattrini, with particular attention to the methods related to retrospective dosimetry and to the objectives of the project. Future prospects for the development of physical dosimetry techniques in Kazakhstan were discussed and evaluated.