MUSC is among 13 universities and five Department of Energy (DOE) laboratories in a DOE effort to take advantage of advances in biological research by funding $16 million in research.

David Hoel, Ph.D., professor in the Department of Biometry and Epidemiology, is principal investigator of DOE-funded research at MUSC entitled: “Radiation Leukemogenesis: Applying Basic Science to Epidemiological Estimates of Low-Dose Risks and Dose-rate Effects.”

Hoel, Tom Radivoyevitch, Ph.D., and several graduate students working on the project, will develop mathematic models of the effects of radiation on the induction chromosome breaks and their repair. These models will be used to estimate the risks of leukemias from radiation exposure at low dose levels.

The DOE-funded research projects seek to address unresolved issues in four general areas:

• Can we mine the rich biochemical potential of microbes?
• Can genetic information reduce uncertainties of the health risks from low-level exposures to radiation?
• Can we better "engineer" biomolecules for use in energy production, environmental cleanup, drug development, and industrial use?
• Can new genetic information from mice, yeast and fruit flies help us more quickly understand the function of the 70,000 to 100,000 human genes?

In announcing the new funding, under secretary of energy Ernest Moniz said, “Today, new questions are being asked and new approaches are needed to solve complex biological problems. This new research is one step on the path to taking full advantage of the wealth of information contained in our genes for making better estimates of health risk, diagnosing and predicting disease more accurately and efficiently, and developing and using drugs in a more rational way. These new technologies also have broad applications in energy production, environmental cleanup and industry."

In the area of low dose research, where $6 million in research funding has been allocated, MUSC joins DOE's Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore, National Laboratories and Brandeis University, Case Western Reserve University, Columbia University, Harvard University, the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the University of Cincinnati, and the National Institutes of Health.

This research will use new molecular tools and resources developed in the human genome program to reduce the uncertainties in determining these health risks. A key element in this research is the link between responses at the molecular level—for example, turning on genes, producing proteins and repairing DNA damage—and their effect on cells and, in turn, the body.

This new information will be useful in the ongoing development of federal health risk policies that protect workers and the public from radiation and from environmental pollutants, including those at DOE sites.

The DOE reports that the new research was funded following extensive peer review or proposals. The department's life sciences research program began more than 50 years ago to study the health effects of radiation, initially focusing on epidemiology studies of exposed people and genetic studies in animals.

More than 10 years ago, DOE started the human genome program to develop information at the genetic level on the impacts of radiation and energy production. Today, DOE's research program takes advantage of rapid advances in genome research, rapidly growing capabilities in the ability to rapidy determine the structure of proteins, and a 50-year heritage of research on radiation biology, and the use of animal models to understand the health impacts of radiation and chemical exposure.