Irradiation of Living Cells with Single Ions at the Ion Microprobe SNAKE

The irradiation setup at the ion microprobe SNAKE is used to irradiate living cells with single energetic ions. The irradiation accuracy of 0.55 μm and respectively 0.40 μm allows to irradiate substructures of the cell nucleus. By the choice of ion atomic number and energy the irradiation can be performed with a damage density adjustable over more than three orders of magnitude. Immunofluorescence detection techniques show the distribution of proteins involved in the repair of DNA double-strand breaks. In one of the first experiments the kinetics of appearance of irradiation-induced foci in living HeLa cells was examined. In other experiments a new effect was detected which concerned the interaction between irradiation events performed at different time points within the same cell nucleus.