LPC - Health Team

Published on July 21, 2021 – Updated on July 23, 2021

The LPC Health team brings together a range of skills from radiation physics and modelling to biology/radiobiology and physical chemistry. The programs developed aim to understand tumor radioresistance, to develop innovative approaches to radiosensitization and to model dose deposits.

Plateforme PAVIRMA : irradiateur X (générateur de 320 kVp, débit de dose max 8 Gy / min – 100 à 500 Gy)

Plateforme PAVIRMA : irradiateur X (générateur de 320 kVp, débit de dose max 8 Gy / min – 100 à 500 Gy)

The research activity of the Health team (https://see.lpc.uca.fr/#/admin) on the Cancer axis is focused on 3 main areas:

  • Simulation and modeling around the GATE platform (https://gate.uca.fr/#/admin) in order to determine the distribution of doses in a context of diagnostic and therapeutic applications in external and internal radiotherapy. Initially focused on photonic irradiation, this activity is also open to hadrontherapy
  • Development of innovative radiotherapies in order to radiosensitize tumors by using high Z elements capable of amplifying the local dose deposit during irradiation. This approach is carried out by targeting other cellular organelles (i.e. mitochondria) in complement to the nucleus.
  • On-line control of proton beams in order to qualify in "real time" the path of protons within the organism. This aspect relies essentially on the development of original prototype detectors capable of being positioned on proton lines. This prototype has been installed at the Centre Antoine Lacassagne in Nice.

These three research areas are integrated at the regional level within the LabEx PRIMES (Physics, Radiobiology, Medical Imaging and Simulation: https://primes.universite-lyon.fr) and at the national level within the GDR Mi2B (https://www.mi2b.fr). Numerous international collaborations have been set up, notably with the GATE collaboration.

The experimental approaches related to X-ray irradiations are carried out on the local platform PAVIRMA which has all the necessary infrastructure for the photonic exposures of the biological samples but also for the first steps of cellular maintenance (https://partner.uca.fr/english-version/our-area-of-expertise/biology-and-health-technologies/biological-sample-irradiation-pavirma). Irradiations using light ion beams of higher energy are carried out in the framework of privileged partnerships with the Centre Antoine Lacassagne in Nice (https://www.protontherapie.fr) and the dedicated platforms of IN2P3 in Bordeaux (https://www.cenbg.in2p3.fr/-La-plateforme-AIFIRA,29-?lang=fr) and Strasbourg (http://www.iphc.cnrs.fr/-Cyclotron-CYRCE-.html)

Other GCCA partners