Wecome to the Website dedicated to the project RUBI
Ionizing radiations (IoR) originating from natural sources (cosmic rays, sun, seas, rocks…) or from human activities (medicine, nuclear plant disasters, nuclear weapons…) are ubiquitous in nature. In the interstellar medium, IoR deeply impact the complex astrochemistry occurring in gases or on grains. In biology IoR cause deleterious damages to genomes, proteins or signaling pathways that normally regulate cell activity, having harmful consequences like accelerated ageing, tumors and cancers. Fortunately, the devastating power of IoR can also be harvested in radiotherapy or for sterilization in industry.
The fast collision (10-16 s) of high energy particles with matter results in ionization or excitation of its constituent molecules. The nature of radiation induced chemical damages produced on the nanosecond time scale by irradiation is now well documented. Conversely, the ultrafast (< ps) reactivity of the plethora of the highly reactive transients produced by irradiation with biomoleculesis to a large extent a terra incognita. RUBI aims at exploring this territory.
RUBI gathers five academics research partners from France and Mexico with the aim of devising advanced numerical simulations approaches to unravel the ultra-fast reactivity of of biological molecules subjected to ionizing radiations (see dedicated pages)
If you are interested to join our research team as student, post-doctoral fellow or even young researcher, don’t hesitate to contact us.