Bio
Current Projects
Relative Biological Effectiveness of Photon Radiation Qualities for Human Rectal Cancer Cells
Joanna’s project aims to characterize the RBE of clinically relevant high and low photon energies such as MV x-rays, Ir-192 brachytherapy source and Xoft electronic brachytherapy source, using 225 kVp x-rays as a reference quality. She will irradiate human colorectal cancer cell lines HCT116 and HT29 in vitro with these photon qualities, then assess cell survival using the clonogenic assay. She will compare her data with her colleagues Naim and Joud, who are conducting RBE studies using the human cervical cancer cell line HeLa and prostate cancer cell line PC3 respectively. This will help them determine how different cancer types could affect the RBE of photon qualities.
In the future, Joanna will also aim to measure the RBE of higher linear energy transfer radiation qualities such as alpha particles. In addition, she will investigate how the DNA damage response could impact RBE for a particular cancer type by irradiating HPV+ vs. HPV- human head and neck cancer cells.