Express - liverpool.ac.uk · FLUKA, Geant4 and PENELOPE through lectures, tutorials and hands-on workshops. They were ... learning techniques. All talks and exercises are available

ExpressIssue 5 December 2017

Highlights

• First peer-reviewed

paper publication

within OMA

• OMA school on

Monte Carlo

Simulatoins

• OMA review

Meeting

• Fellows Activity

• Partner News

We already had a number ofhighlights in our project in thepast, but last month surelytopped it all. Starting with our2nd scientific internationalSchool, this time on Monte Carlosimulations, all our Fellows cameto Munich to learn the basics ofFLUKA, Geant4 and PENELOPEthrough lectures, tutorials andhands-on workshops. They werejoined by all students in thenewly established Center forDoctoral Training LIV.DAT toestablish links between twomajor new training initiatives. Itwas a pleasure to see our Fellowscollaborate actively and applywhat they learned in the course.All training material is nowavailable via our School indicosite, so others can benefit fromthe well-rounded program.

On Tuesday, 7th November, weorganized an internationaloutreach event between CERN,Ludwig Maximilian University inMunich and the University ofLiverpool to celebrate the 150th

birth anniversary of MarieSklodowska Curie and the 20th

anniversary of the MarieSklodowska Curie Actions whichsupport our OMA project. The

event saw hundreds of schoolchildren and students join livelyposter sessions and hands-onactivities at the three locations,as well as talks that were video-streamed for a global audience.The European Commissioncontributed a special videomessage to our event which wasparticularly well received by allparticipants.

Just days later, I was very proudto listen to our Fellows as theypresented their remarkableresearch and training progressduring our mid-term reviewmeeting with the EC on 13th

November. It was also a greatpleasure to meet all of ourproject partners and review theexcellent progress made so far.

Finally, the Force was strongwith our project when weorganised a Physics of Star Warsevent in Liverpool on 27th

November. This linked R&Dwithin OMA with the science andfiction in the famous Star Warsmovies and fascinated hundredsof high school children, universitystaff and students. It also reached100,000s via various onlinechannels.

November 2017 - what a month!

Prof. Carsten P. Welsch, Coordinator

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First peer-reviewed paper publication of Johannes Petzoldtwithin OMA project

Johannes Petzoldt, OMA Fellow from IBA, ishappy to announce his first peer-reviewedpaper publication within the OMA project.He co-authored the sensitivity study of theprompt-gamma (PG) camera of IBA, whichhas been published by Lena Nenoff et al.,Johannes’ collaboration partners at OncoRayin Dresden, Germany. The paper is beingpublished in a special issue of “Radiotherapy& Oncology”, one of the most prestigiousjournals in radiation therapy.Lena Nenoff et al. investigated the limitationsof the PG slit camera, delivering clinicaltreatment plans on an anthropomorphicphantom. During the experiments, local andglobal range variations of different magnitudewere introduced and the ability of the PGcamera to detect those range shifts waschallenged and further investigated. Johannescontributed mostly with a calibrationmeasurement of the PG camera, which heperformed in December 2016 in his firstsecondment at OncoRay. Based on his results,the PG simulation accuracy could be highlyimproved and the robustness of the dataanalysis was increased. The results of thestudy further strengthen the confidence inrange verification measurements using thePG camera.

Research News

Full article:‘Sensitivity of a prompt-gamma slit-camera to detect range shifts for proton treatment verification’, LenaNenoff, Marlen Priegnitz, Guillaume Janssens, Johannes Petzoldt, Patrick Wohlfahrt, Anna Trezza, JulienSmeets, Guntram Pausch, Christian Richter, Radiotherapy and Oncology, Article in press, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.radonc.2017.10.013

Fig. Detected range shifts between measurement andsimulation for separate spots in 6 consecutive energy layersof the IMPT 1Gy field. Spot size correlates with the numberof protons. For each layer, the layer-averagedshifts ± standard deviations are given. For local shifts (blackcircle), this is done separately in- and outside of theaffected area. Source: ‘Sensitivity of a prompt-gamma slit-camera to detect range shifts for proton treatmentverification’, Lena Nenoff et al., Radiotherapy andOncology, Article in press.

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Between October and November 2017, OMAFellow Anna Baratto Roldán (US/CNA)attended two international conferences topresent her work within the OMA project.

From the 15th to the 17th of October, sheparticipated in the International Conferenceon Monte Carlo Techniques for MedicalApplications (MCMA2017) in Naples, whereshe presented a poster entitled Relationbetween dose average linear energy transferand dose mean lineal energy calculated for

proton therapy beams off axis: A study withthe Geant4 toolkit.The abstracts of the conference were recentlypublished in a supplement to Physica Medica.

From the 17th to the 18th of November, Annaattended the 1st ESTRO Physics Workshop inGlasgow, where she joined the symposium onmicro- and nanodosimetry for radiotherapy.This workshop had the aim to promote a newand unique concept for scientific exchange,facilitating networking and new ideas. In herwork group, Anna gave a talk on thepreparation of beam lines at CNA (Seville,Spain) for Radiobiology experiments, where,besides her own project in OMA, she alsopresented the work done by Dr. CristinaBattaglia, former oPAC fellow.

Anna Baratto Roldán’s work presented at international conferences

Anna presenting her poster at MCMA2017

Anna giving a talk at 1st ESTRO Physics Workshop

Proceedings:'Abstract ID: 196 Relation between dose average linear energy transfer and dose mean lineal energycalculated for proton therapy beams off axis: A study with the Geant4 toolkit', Anna Baratto-Roldán, PeterKimstrand, Álvaro Perales Molina, Alejandro Carabe, Miguel Antonio Cortés-Giraldo, Physica Medica:European Journal of Medical Physics, Volume 42, 42 – 43, International Conference on Monte CarloTechniques for Medical Applications – 2017 (Naples, Italy, October 2017).http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2017.09.104

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OMA School on Monte Carlo Simulations at LMU Munich

The second scientific school of the OMAproject took place at Ludwig MaximilianUniversity of Munich, Germany, between 6th

and 10th November. The school programmewas developed and coordinated by Dr.Alfredo Ferrari from CERN and delivered byinternational experts. It covered thefundamentals of Monte Carlo simulations andcombined lectures with hands-on training.School participants were familiarized withMonte Carlo on the specific examples ofFLUKA, PENELOPE and Geant4 codesthroughout the week. The event broughttogether fellows from two Liverpool-coordinated networks: OMA and Liv.Dat,providing opportunities for networkingbetween major training initiatives.

The school kicked off on Monday morningwith an introductory talk by Dr. AlfredoFerrari, followed by a talk on principles ofMonte Carlo calculations and codes by Prof.Francesc Salvat from the University ofBarcelona. The extensive programme of theday included an overview of various codes:

Geant4 was presented by Dr. George Dedes(LMU Munich), PENELOPE by Prof. FrancescSalvat and FLUKA by Dr. Alfredo Ferrari. Mr.Eleftherios Skordis from University ofLiverpool/CERN introduced the participantsto FLAIR (FLUKA Advanced Interface).The second day provided more insight intoPENELOPE, with lectures by Prof. José MªFernández Varea from the University ofBarcelona and Dr. Lorenzo Brualla fromUniversitätsklinikum Essen. The afternoonwas devoted to a hands-on session andincluded exercises with PENELOPE andGeant4.

The day finished off with participation in aninternational outreach event ‘Marie CurieDay’ https://marie-curie-day-2017.org/. AllOMA fellows contributed to an outreachposter session, which was followed by a talk‘The impact of Marie Sklodowska-CurieActions to support education and research inion beam cancer therapy’ by Prof. KatiaParodi of LMU.

Participants of the OMA School on Monte Carlo Simulations

Network News

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The talks on Wednesday focused on theFLUKA code, with Geometry in FLUKA byEleftherios Skordis, FLUKA models by Dr.Alfredo Ferrari, Ionization and transport inFLUKA by Dr. Francesc Salvat Pujol andAccelerators in FLUKA by Eleftherios Skordis.Thursday provided further understanding of

this code, with lectures by Dr. Andrea Mairanifrom Heidelberg Ion Beam Therapy Centre,covering heavy ion beams and radioactivity,scoring and medical applications in FLUKA.The talks were followed by a computerexercises session on FLUKA and its medicalapplications.

On the final day of the school the participantslearned about Geant4 advanced examples,presented by Dr. Marco Pinto and Dr. GeorgeDedes (LMU). The talk on Outlook in Penelopewas given by Dr. Francesc Salvat Pujol and thetalk on Outlook in FLUKA by Dr. AlfredoFerrari. The participants also received anoverview of GeantV, with Dr. Andrei Gheata(CERN) presenting Outlook in GeantV and Dr.Sofia Vallecorsa (Gangneung-Wonju NationalUniversity) giving a talk on GeantV: machinelearning techniques.All talks and exercises are available viahttps://indico.cern.ch/event/656336

OMA achievements showcased at the Mid-term Review MeetingThe OMA Mid-Term Review took place on13th November 2017 in the historicalbuilding of the Ludwig Maximilian Universityof Munich, Germany.The meeting started with a welcome from theProject Coordinator, Prof Carsten Welsch,followed by an introduction by the ECrepresentative from the Research ExecutiveAgency (REA), the external reviewer and allScientists-in-charge. Prof Welsch thenpresented an overview of progress made inresearch, training and networking, as well asaspects of the management of the contract.He spoke about the OMA training model, theevents delivered so far, unique collaborationswith other training initiatives and their impacton the fellows’ training.

Exercises with FLUKA – hands-on session

Prof Welsch presenting an overview of progress made in research, training and networking

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He also presented a summary of the projectwide communication and significant outreachinvolvement, to conclude with plans for theremaining two years. The fellows’representative in the Steering CommitteeMichelle Lis delivered a presentation of thefellows’ perspective, which emphasized theexceptional opportunities that OMA networkprovides to its fellows, such as networking,training and secondments, as well ashighlighted the peer mentor scheme in OMAand the experience of leading own researchproject.

The individual presentations of the OMAfellows were a central part of the meeting. All15 ESRs delivered talks on their projectprogress in such aspects as research, trainingand dissemination, as well as theirexperiences in the network. Remarkableachievements were presented by all OMAfellows, only one year after the start of theirindividual projects. All fellows then met withthe reviewers to discuss their experiencesand views on the project in more detail.Meanwhile the consortium representativesgathered for a Supervisory Board meeting todiscuss project reporting and plan futureevents.

The meeting finished with a brief summary bythe project officer, who recognized a verygood progress of the OMA project andcongratulated all fellows on their results andachievements.

Thank you to all who contributed to a highlysuccessful meeting in Munich! Special thanksto Prof Katia Parodi and LMU Munich forhosting the event.

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OMA Partners and Fellows lead Marie Curie Celebrations across Europe

The 7th November was the 150th anniversaryof the birth of Marie Skłodowska Curie. Inorder to celebrate her life and achievements,as well as the EU funding program that bearsher name, researchers from three OMApartner institutions organised asimultaneous event at the University ofLiverpool, CERN in Geneva, and LudwigMaximilians University in Munich. ProfCarsten Welsch, who organised the event,said: ”The event was a great success. We hadhundreds of school children, students andresearchers participate across the three sites,as well as more than half a Million peoplewho read about the event via internet andsocial media on the day.”Marie Skłodowska Curie’s research anddiscovery of radioactivity initiated the use ofradiation in cancer treatment and significantlycontributed to the development of moderncancer research, which is the central interestof the OMA project. OMA is funded by theEuropean Union’s Marie Skłodowska-CurieActions (MSCA), which provide grants to trainresearchers, and encourage their

transnational, inter-sectoral andinterdisciplinary mobility. The programmehonours Marie Skłodowska Curie and spreadsthe values she stood for.All OMA fellows contributed to the event bypresenting outreach posters in a dedicatedposter session at LMU Munich. The posterspresented research topics in a non-scientificway, resulting in a very interesting materialwhich brought medical accelerators researchcloser to general public.

Poster session at LMU Munich.

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The session was followed by a live-streamedtalk by Prof Katia Parodi, Head of MedicalPhysics at LMU Munich, about the impact ofMSCA on education and research in ion beamcancer therapy. A film contributed by theEuropean Commission’s DG EAC, MartineReicherts, provided additional backgroundinformation and the view of the EU.

During the day there have been public talksand poster sessions in all three Europeanlocations. In Liverpool, more than 70 localhigh school students attended a series ofactivities at the University, including live-streamed talks and hands-on demonstrations,as well as a poster competition about Womenin Science. Their activities were wrapped upwith a talk about accelerating researchertraining by Prof Welsch. At CERN there was aposter session presenting research and careerpaths of current and former MSCA fellowsand a talk by Dr Marco Silari about theinternational impact of Marie SkłodowskaCurie Actions on research at CERN.

Marie Curie remains an inspirational figurewho has paved the way for many women inscience, and today, 150 years on from herbirth, still continues to inspire a newgeneration of scientists.

More information, such as Fellows’ individualprofiles and videos of all talks, can be foundon the event home page:

http://www.marie-curie-day-2017.org.

Outreach poster by OMA Fellow, Sudharsan Srinivasan from PSI

Public talk by Prof. Katia Parodi, LMU Munich

Celebrations at the University of Liverpool.

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OMA presented at IBIC 17

The annual International BeamInstrumentation Conference (IBIC) tookplace in Grand Rapids, USA between 20th -24th August 2017. IBIC is a fruitful gatheringof the world's beam instrumentationcommunity and encourages internationalcollaboration in the field of beaminstrumentation for accelerators. Theconference is dedicated to exploring thephysics and engineering challenges of beamdiagnostic and measurement techniques forparticle accelerators worldwide.OMA Project Coordinator Prof CarstenWelsch attended the conference to presentan invited talk on “Low energy, low intensitybeam diagnostics”. He also contributedseveral posters to the scientific programme,including an update on recent results onmedical diagnostics within our OMA project.Further project news were presented byAlexandra Welsch, a member of the ProjectTEAM, via a dedicated industry stand. Thisincluded the brand-new OMA brochure

containing detailed information about theproject and background information about allof our Fellows.

University of Liverpool stand at IBIC’17.

OMA Brochure presented at industry stand.

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Upcoming OMA Events

The first Topical Workshop will link twoOMA work packages WP3 and WP4, andcover facility design optimization for patienttreatment. The workshop will present thestate-of-the-art in beam delivery and link theFellows R&D projects into a much widerinternational research context. It will discusshow different beam characteristics impact ondose delivery and how this is linked in return

to the efficiency of cancer treatment. Theevent will also include sessions on gantry andtreatment room design and consider patientneeds and preparation times beforetreatment sessions.The workshop is mandatory for OMA fellowsfrom WP3 and WP4.A limited number of places will be offered toexternal participants.

1st OMA Topical Workshop - Facility Design Optimization for Treatment12th -13th March 2018, PSI, Switzerland

The second Topical Workshop will linkdiagnostics for beam and patient monitoringand hence connect the diagnostics efforts intwo OMA work packages WP2 and WP3. Inparticular, it will discuss the role of onlinemonitoring capability for patient treatmentand how information from 3D online andpatient tracking systems, as developed inwork package 3, needs to be combined with

the general accelerator diagnostics, beamcontrol systems and the specific monitorsdeveloped in work package 2, to achievemaximum treatment efficiency.The workshop is mandatory for OMA fellowsfrom WP2 and WP3.A limited number of places will be offered toexternal participants.

2nd OMA Topical Workshop - Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring4th – 5th June 2018, CERN, Switzerland

OMA Partner Organization COSYLAB is aworld-wide leader in accelerator controlsystems. All diagnostics and detector work,as well as facility optimization studies willbenefit from this training. The training willintroduce participants to control systems,

with hands-on activities based on an exampleof EPICS.The Academy is mandatory for all OMAFellows.Please note this event is not open to externalparticipants.

Cosylab Academy 6th – 8th June 2018, CERN, Switzerland

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Other Events

Cancer remains a major European healthconcern. More than 50% of patients receiveradiotherapy as part of their cancertreatment. The main limitations of thistreatment are the lack of tumour selectivity,which causes severe side effects, and theradioresistance of tumours. Highly promisingapproaches to improve the performances ofradiation-based therapies include advancedradiation protocols (such as fast ion beamradiation or ultra-high-dose rate radiation)and nanoparticles-enhanced therapies.This international conference brings togetherWorld leading researchers of different

disciplines: physicists and medical physicists,chemists, biologists, medical doctors andSMEs with the aim of presenting their resultsof exploiting and understanding thenanoscale processes, towards thedevelopment and optimization of newnanodrugs together with novel radiationprotocols – a high-excellence effort thatshould lead to a new era for radiotherapywith subsequent economic and quality of lifebenefits for the population.

https://argent.sciencesconf.org/

International Conference - Advanced Radiotherapy, Generated by Exploiting Nanoprocesses and Technologies22nd -24th January 2018, CNRS, University Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (Paris region), France

Joint Universities Accelerator School – JUAS8th January – 16th March 2018, Archamps, France

Late applications are still welcome, subjectto available places.Courses cover the science and technology ofparticle accelerators. The programme offerslectures, hands on session and practical’s atCERN and other specialized laboratories.Applications are welcome from students

(second-year Master, PhD) and fromphysicists wishing to further their knowledgein this particular field.Course 1 : The science of particle acceleratorsCourse 2 : The technology & applications ofparticle accelerators.More details: www.juas.eu

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PHOTOPTICS 2018 - 6th International Conference on Photonics, Optics and Laser Technology25th -27th January 2018, Funchal, Madeira - Portugal

This 6th edition of PHOTOPTICS will feature 3different tracks on Optics, Photonics andLasers, covering both theoretical andpractical aspects. Researchers, engineers andpractitioners interested in any of these fieldsare welcome to join us in Funchal, Madeira

and present their work on new methods ortechnologies, advanced prototypes, systems,tools and techniques, as well as generalsurvey papers indicating future directions.Conferencehttp://www.photoptics.org/

AVA School on Antimatter Physics25th – 29th June 2018, CERN, Switzerland

Antimatter experiments are at the cuttingedge of science. They are, however, verydifficult to realise. The AVA project aims atenabling new antimatter experiments,probing the fundamental laws of nature.

We are delighted to announce a week-longinternational School on Low EnergyAntimatter Physics which will be held atCERN. It will cover the challenges inantimatter facility design and optimization,beyond state of the art beam diagnostics and

advanced detectors, as well as novelantimatter experiments.In addition to lectures by research leaders,there will be study groups, a poster sessionand a dedicated industry session. There willalso be opportunities for discussion andnetworking at evening events and a tour ofCERN’s unique accelerator facilities.Registration is open now, we recommend toregister early to secure a place:

https://indico.cern.ch/event/677170/

Applications now open! Summer Student Program at GSI/FAIR 23rd July – 13th Sept 2018

GSI will organize an International SummerStudent Program together with theHelmholtz Graduate School HGS-HIRe. TheSummer Program is offered to students onthe advanced undergraduate level (Bachelor,Master or Diploma) in physics and relatednatural science and engineering disciplinesfrom Europe and GSI/FAIR partner countries.

The majority of the offered projects willconcern investigations and preparationstowards our future project FAIR and itsscientific experiments.

Further information for applicants can befound at:http://hgs-hire.de/summer-program

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Andrea de Franco obtains PhD degree

Andrea De Franco, OMA Fellow based atMedAustron, recently obtained his PhD fromthe University of Oxford with a thesis titled“Development of a camera for Tera-electronVolt Gamma-ray Astronomy”. AtMedAustron, Andrea’s research is nowfocused on beam dynamics and acceleratortechnologies to improve synchrotron basedion beam therapy centers, with the main goalof reducing treatment time and henceincrease patient throughput. The knowledgeand expertise acquired during his work inastroparticle physics on hardware andsoftware development and commissioningproved to be invaluable assets for his currentproject in OMA.

Congratulations, Andrea!

Fellows News

Dr Andrea de Franco at his graduation.

Christoph-Schmelzer Award for Johannes PetzoldtOMA Fellow Johannes Petzoldt (IBA)received the 19. Christoph-Schmelzer-Preisfor his PhD thesis on „Toward the ClinicalApplication of the Prompt Gamma-RayTiming Method for Range Verification inProton Therapy“. With his thesis, Johannesbrought the prompt gamma-ray timingmethod from a proof-of-principle phasecloser to a clinical application. In his studies,he investigated the time resolution ofscintillators, characterized the time structureof the proton beam at the therapy centre inDresden, and further tested and deployed anovel prototype detection system underclinical conditions.The Christoph-Schmelzer-Preis is annuallyawarded by the association for promotion oftumour therapy with heavy ions - Verein zurFörderung der Tumortherapie mit schwerenIonen e.V. and honours outstanding masterand PhD-theses in the field of ion beamtherapy. The award ceremony took place atthe Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research

(GSI) in Darmstadt, Germany. The event wasalso attended by Michelle Lis (OMA fellowworking at GSI), who afterwards had anopportunity to discuss her work with otherresearchers in the field of ion beam therapy.

Johannes Petzoldt and Michelle Lis, Image credit: Gabi Otto/GSI

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Fellow’s Outreach

Sudharsan Srinivasan, our Fellow based atPaul Scherrer Institut, gave a public talk on“Accelerators in daily life” at KendriyaVidyalaya: 2, Kalpakkam, India in July 2017.His audience were 40 high school students.The talk focused on influence of particleaccelerators on our routine life, withemphasis on the working principles and thehistory of accelerators. It created a lot ofinterest among the audience and resulted instudents asking many questions to get a

deeper knowledge of accelerators. Sudharsanalso briefed them about the OMA network atits objectives.Not restricting the discussion to justaccelerators, Sudharsan helped withsuggestions on how the students can shapetheir approach towards science in generaland also shared his experiences of being aresearcher. A number of students is now intouch with Sudharsan for further discussions.

OMA Fellow guides tours at CERNSince September 2017 OMA Fellow GiuliaAricó has been acting as a tour guide in herhost institute, CERN. CERN is activelyinvolved in outreach activities, with anaverage of 400 visitors per day registered atCERN.In order to become a guide, Giulia carried outrelevant training courses on health and safetyprocedures, as well as spent many hourslearning about the various CERN experimentsand detectors. Since she gained the requiredknowledge she started to guide groups of 16-19 years old students. As CERN tries to offertours to the visitors in the most familiarlanguage, Giulia has been welcoming mainlyItalian students who come to ‘discover’ CERN.She has found that students are highlyinterested in experiments and scientific

projects, as well as every day work at CERN.Giulia finds the experience of a CERN guidevery rewarding and she hopes to transfer herenthusiasm for research to young students,who may pursue their future career in scienceor simply gain more interest in science.

OMA reaches India

Sudharsan Srinivasan visits a school in India.

Image credit: CERN

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CNAO and GSI together for research and optimization in hadrontherapy treatmentsTwo OMA Partner organizations, the GSIHelmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Researchand the CNAO National Center forOncological Hadrontherapy, have forged acollaboration in developing the nextgeneration of particle therapy. Theirresearch is investigating methods to reduceirradiation time and to integrate motionmanagement techniques, allowing a moreprecise treatment of tumors affected byrespiratory motion.

Both institutions have the common purposeof improving particle therapy and developingrelated cutting-edge technology, and CNAOand GSI signed a contract to improve thetechnology of cancer therapy with heavy ions.Within the collaboration, the establishedcontrol system at CNAO will be installed andfurther developed at GSI in Darmstadt.The control system at CNAO provides severaladvantages for the research group at GSI. Themodern, industrially available componentswithin the treatment rooms at CNAO, such asthe dose detectors will be installed at GSI,expanding potential research anddevelopment projects, mainly in reducingirradiation time and integrating motionmanagement techniques. The nextgeneration of particle therapy will provide

sophisticated methods for motionmanagements, allowing for more precisetreatment of tumors that move duringrespiration. One of the Marie Skłodowska-Curie OMA fellows, Michelle Lis, will play akey role in developing the software for thedose delivery system capable of motionmanagement. The delivery system will becapable of dynamically treating tumors whilethe patient is freely breathing. This will beachieved by providing feedback on the tumormotion and using this feedback to direct thetreatment delivery. Due to CNAO’s CE-labelcertification, transferring the system into theclinical setting will be simpler.GSI has played a pioneering role in theestablishment of heavy ion therapy in Europe,beginning in 1997, with a pilot project thattreated over 440 patients with carbon ionbeams, and concluding in 2008. The rasterscanning technique was developed there, andwhich remains the state of the art technologyin modern particle therapy centersthroughout the world. GSI has also been theforerunner in the development of treatmentmethods for moving targets, such as lungtumors. Several new technologies in this area,such as beam tracking and 4D-optimizationwere pioneered and experimentally testedhere.The very foundation of the Italian NationalCenter for Oncological Hadrontherapy(CNAO) is the product of important networkof national and international collaborations,including GSI. Accordingly, many groupsthroughout the world have looked to CNAOas a model in international collaboration, andhave sought the opportunity for collaborationwith CNAO in developing their own researchor establishing similar particle therapycenters.

Partner News

Marco Donetti and Michelle Lis, CNAO

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Advanced Medical Physics for Image-guided Cancer Therapy –a DFG-funded Research Training Group

The Research Training Group /Graduiertenkolleg GRK 2274 “AdvancedMedical Physics for Image-Guided CancerTherapy” is a joint initiative of the Physicsand Medical Faculties of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU) andthe Technische Universität München (TUM)as well as the Helmholtzzentrum München(HMGU). The training programme, funded bythe German Research Foundation (DFG) foran initial period of 4,5 years, has becomeoperational on October 1st, 2017 (Speaker:Prof. Dr. Katia Parodi/ LMU, Vice Speaker:Prof. Dr. Franz Pfeiffer/ TUM).

Mission and research programmeCancer is a major societal challenge, wherethe combination of novel imaging andcomputational techniques with advancedtherapeutic strategies is key to earlydiagnosis, exact tumour characterization andsuccessful treatment. The goal GRK2274 is topromote young scientists from naturalsciences and medicine in this rapidly growingfield of medical physics. GRK2274 covers

basic, translational and clinical research,building upon a long tradition of excellence inbiomedical research in Munich from the twouniversities (LMU, TUM) and the researchcenter HMGU. The multi- and interdisciplinaryresearch programme will touch uponinnovative areas of computing (research areaA), imaging (research area B) and therapy(research area C), addressed in synergisticPh.D. and M.D. projects with the commongoal to advance image-guided cancer therapy.The original qualification concept features abroad spectrum of compulsory and eligibletraining activities, to ensure not onlyacademic excellence and scientificindependence, but also the development offundamental personal effectiveness. GRK2274thus provides an ideal platform to promoteinnovations in oncology with a potentiallyhigh societal impact, and to form the nextgeneration of scientists with excellent careerprospects in academia, clinic and industry.

Further details:http://www.med.physik.uni-muenchen.de

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Physics of Star Wars event at the University of Liverpool

Hundreds of local secondary school studentsattended the Physics of Star Wars eventhosted by the University’ of LiverpoolDepartment of Physics. The event, which wasa celebration of Star Wars’ 40th anniversary,discussed what is science and what is fictionin the famous films. OMA Coordinator ProfWelsch linked the Star Wars universe toresearch activities within the OMA project inan informative and entertaining event.

Almost 200 local high school students visitedcampus for the morning session, in additionto 150 staff and students from across theuniversity attending the evening event at theuniversity’s award-winning Central TeachingLaboratory.

There was lots of social media engagementon the @livuniphysics twitter account and theCockcroft Institute Facebook page, includingretweets from OMA partners CERN, GSI andCOSYLAB. There was also engagement withlocal press for the event with BBC Radio

Merseyside attending on the day andinterviewing organiser Prof Carsten Welsch.The interview is available to listen to (from1:26:11) here.

Prof Welsch commented on a successfulevent: “It was fantastic to see high schoolchildren, students and staff get engaged withour current research programmes throughStar Wars. The event allowed us to highlight anumber of research challenges we arecurrently facing and how technologies fromthe famous movie series relate to our day-to-day R&D. Everyone seemed to love the ratherunique combination of hands-on activities,discussions with researchers and students, aswell as the overview talk that featured scenesfrom the films and even saw Darth Vaderhimself appear in the lecture theatre!”

Prof Welsch talking about the Physics of Star Wars.

‘Proton torpedoes beat the Death Star –proton beams beat cancer.’

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Other News

Call for The European Young Researchers’ Award now openThe prize is dedicated to post-doctoralfellows with maximum 5 years of experience.The Award consists of a certificate, waivingthe participation fee to the EuroScience OpenForum (ESOF), a grant to cover travel andaccommodation for the stay in the ESOF cityand one year free EuroScience membership.

The deadline for the 2018 call is TuesdayJanuary 30, 2018.More information on the award as well as onthe qualification and eligibility criteria can befound here.

Selected Publications‘Sensitivity of a prompt-gamma slit-camera to detect range shifts for proton treatmentverification’, Lena Nenoff, Marlen Priegnitz, Guillaume Janssens, Johannes Petzoldt, PatrickWohlfahrt, Anna Trezza, Julien Smeets, Guntram Pausch, Christian Richter, Radiotherapy andOncology, Article in press, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.radonc.2017.10.013

‘Abstract ID: 196 Relation between dose average linear energy transfer and dose mean linealenergy calculated for proton therapy beams off axis: A study with the Geant4 toolkit’, AnnaBaratto-Roldán, Peter Kimstrand, Álvaro Perales Molina, Alejandro Carabe, Miguel Antonio Cortés-Giraldo, Physica Medica: European Journal of Medical Physics, Volume 42, 42 – 43, InternationalConference on Monte Carlo Techniques for Medical Applications – 2017 (Naples, Italy, October2017). http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2017.09.104

Paper on previous work by Giulia Aricó, OMA Fellow from CERN:‘Investigation of mixed ion fields in the forward direction for 220.5 MeV/u helium ion beams:comparison between water and PMMA targets’, G Aricò, T Gehrke, J Jakubek, R Gallas, S Berke, OJäkel, A Mairani, A Ferrari and M Martišíková, 2017 Phys. Med. Biol. 62(20) 8003-8025https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6560/aa875e

VacanciesProject Manager for OMA at the University of Liverpool / The Cockcroft InstituteMore information can be found here: https://recruit.liverpool.ac.uk/pls/...

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This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 675265.

Project CoordinatorProf Carsten P. Welsch

[email protected]

Newsletter EditorAlexandra Welsch

[email protected]

Project ManagerMagdalena Klimontowska

[email protected]

NOTICE BOARD

DEADLINE FOR THE NEXT NEWSLETTER 15th February 2018

www.oma-project.eu

OMA Events

Mar 12th – 13th 2018 1st OMA Topical Workshop - Facility Design Optimization for Treatment, PSI, Switzerland

June 4th - 5th 2018 2nd OMA Topical Workshop - Diagnostics for Beam and Patient Monitoring, CERN, Switzerland

June 6th – 8th 2018 Cosylab Academy, CERN, Switzerland

Other Events

Jan 8th – Mar 16th 2018 Juas, Archamps, France

Jan 22nd – 24th 2018 International Conference Argent, CNRS, University Paris-Saclay, Gif-sur-Yvette (Paris region), France

Jan 25th – 27th 2018 PHOTOPTICS 2018, Funchal – Madeira, Portugal

June 25th – 28th 2018 AVA School on Antimatter Physics, CERN, Switzerland

July 6th 2018 Symposium: Quantum Leap towards the Next Generation of Accelerators, Liverpool, UK

July 23rd - Sept 13th 2018 Summer Student Program, GSI / FAIR, Germany

Wishing you a wonderful Holiday Season and a

Happy New Year!