New Developments in Fundamental and Applied Radiobiology

The 23rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Radiation Biology was held in Dublin, Ireland, 23rd-26th September 1991. The meeting was structured to address eleven major topics of interest to a wide range of workers in radiobiology, and allied fields. It also provides a forum for free communications in all areas of radiobiological interest. Papers which formed the subject matter of the major symposia are published in these proceedings together with the plenary lectures. Topics for the symposia followed two broad themes. The first theme was to promote areas where new developments in cell and molecular biology are fundamentally altering concepts of radiation action. Two of the plenary lecturers, Professors DiPaolo and Little, reviewed this area, which included symposia on radiation induced mutagenesis and transformation, dosimetry and risk, DNA damage and repair, low dose/low dose rate effects, and non-ionising radiation. The second theme concerned areas where radiobiological information was important to the topic per se, and included symposia on food irradiation, diagnostic imaging, environmental radiation, radiotherapy, and the oxygen effect.
All of these are areas where up to date radiobiological knowledge can be usefully applied. The environmental symposium involved a joint session with an international workshop on bioindicators and was preceded by a plenary lecture from Dr N Priest of the NRPB.