High Energy Ion Beam Analysis Facilities For Biomedical Applications

Keywords:
analysis, ion beams, nanoPIXE, biomedical

Abstract:
The Surrey Ion Beam Centre has recently installed an external beam line which allows an analysing beam to be taken outside the vacuum system and be used to analyse samples in air. The beam spot size is currently of the order 40 microns by the time it reaches the sample and can be scanned over an area of about 3mm x 3mm. The Centre is currently developing the beam optics on this and other lines to reduce the beam dimensions to sub 30nm in vacuum and sub micron in air. Techniques such as PIXE and RBS can be used in both vacuum and air to analyse the elemental make up of a range of materials. A planned future development will include the building of a vertical nanobeam which will be capable of analysing living (at least until the beam hits!) biological samples in liquid culture. With these external beam developments there will not be a requirement to freeze dry, or pre-treat biological cells prior to analysis as is often the case in many other vacuum based analysis systems. The current vacuum uses of ion beam analysis will also be presented. These include: (i) A new method of identifying and quantifying the metal atoms of proteins – when coupled with X-ray crystallography this gives accurate structural information. (ii) The analysis of biological samples from for example land remediation sites (iii) The analysis of gut lumen for Ca and P in order to determine whether lack of calcium in the diet is a contributory factor to diseases such as Krones disease (iv) A sensitive method for the analysis of water ingress through polymers (v) Map the uptake of labelled drugs in tumour cell lines (vi) Map the uptake of labelled pharmaceuticals in hair

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Nanotech 2005 Conference Program Abstract