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The 14th ICRR was held between August 28th and September 1st, 2011, in Warsaw, the capital city of the Republic of Poland. Over 2000 participants from all over the world had come together to the Palace of Culture and Science of Poland. Approximately 200 oral sessions and more than 800 poster presentations were invited, and extensive discussions were made during the entire meeting. ICRR is the largest international meeting in radiation research field, which was held every four years. This time Warsaw had been chosen in celebration of the centenary of the second Nobel Prize awarded to Maria Sklodowska-Curie.
Maria Sklodowska was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She spent her young age in Warsaw before moving to Paris in 1981, when she was at the age of 24. She studied mathematics, physics, and chemistry at the Sorbonne, and got her Doctor of General Physics degree in 1903. In the same year, she was awarded the first Nobel Prize for Physics together with her husband Pierre Curie, for their study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel. In 1911, she gained the second Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the separation and characterization of radium and polonium. The building where Maria was born is now the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Museum, where is in the old part of Warsaw.
The scientific program covered various disciplines related to radiation science including physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, regulation, and protection. Among the topics discussed in the meeting, radiation effect on non-DNA target must be the one that should pay attention. This year, we have published one paper in Radiation Research, which described epigenetic mechanism involved in manifestation of radiation-induced genomic instability. Several presentations added the evidences that low-dose radiation modified gene expression patterns. Moreover, bystander effect studied in vivo revealed that epigenetic regulation was taken place in right half of the body, which received radiation exposure in the left half. One another indirect effect was mediated though mitochondria. Mitochondria is a micro organ, which is essential for energy metabolism. It constitutively generate reactive oxygen species (ROS). Since it has been shown that ROS from mitochondria could be a source of DNA damage developed in daily life, the effect of radiation on mitochondria seems quite essential for understanding of the health risks from low-dose radiation.
New developments in research technologies have also been presented. For example, stem cells and progenitor cells are now available for research. In addition, 3D artificially reconstituted human tissue models became available. These experimental systems opened new ways into the discovery of tissue response to ionizing radiation, the determination of possible roles of inflammatory response, and the scientific evaluation of current LNT model.
Warsaw, the capital of Poland, is known as "the Phoenix city". During World War II the city was extensively damaged, but, it was rebuilt with the extraordinary efforts of Polish citizens. Today, it is the city with a blend of past present and the future. As suggested by the president, Prof. Antonina Cebulska-Wasilewska, it was the patriotism that encouraged and supported Maria Sklodowska-Curie and people in Warsaw. The GCOE program is now in the final fiscal year, but, we never decline our efforts to pursue the better understandings of the radiation effects on human beings. As Madam Curie stated, “Neither of us could foresee that in beginning this work we were to enter the path of a new science which we should follow for all our future.”
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