2021 MELODI Statement: available for comment

1 Comment

1. 

   Peter O'Neill on August 31, 2021 at 4:03 pm

   Overall it is a clear development of addressing radiation health effects covering many topics. Some suggestions are as follows:-

   1) p.6 end of paragraph Space travel is mentioned. Are links to the national and International Agencies required such as NASA, ESA, JAXA etc who undetake research in these areas. I think USNAS is presently undertaking a review of radiation exposures of astranauts etc. (Also p.14 2nd para a comment on space travel.)
   2) 5.5 Is temporal variation in dose delivery a change in dose rate for low LET radiation? For high LET radiation should fluence be used as at low fluence few cells traversed whereas at higher fluence more cells traversed by potentially more particles. I was confused by the heading of ‘spatial and temporal’.
   3) Individual radiosensitivity was partially developed but perhaps more emphasis on using the tools developed of biobanks, links to the medical community biobanks etc.
   4 Section 6.2 It was a great move forward to see ‘Setting up student scholarship schemes’ as essential to develop some students/post-docs schemes so they gain a broad knowledge of radiation biology/radioepidemiology across the various disciplines. Undergraduate train does not cover this area or only briefly as it needs cross-disciplinary research to achieve the aims.
   The present methods used in MELODI have been helpful but focussed on a specific topic so not getting the broader exposure to the various disciplines such as radiation biophysics, radiation chemistry and biology and medical aspects of using radiation. It was an excellent suggestion that to enhance retention of the next generation of radiation researchers post graduate scholarship scheme should be set up. Perhaps co-ordinated with marie curie Fellowships scheme or MSc funding from IAEA MSCFP programme.

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