Welcome to RESC

The DIT Centre for Radiation and Environmental Science is an academic centre in the Dublin Institute of Technology specialising in radiation biology and environmental toxicology. 

An area of research where the Centre has demonstrated considerable success has been in the development of novel in vitro cultures from human, fish and invertebrates of ecological importance, for employment in radiation and ecotoxicological studies. 

The Radiobiology group investigates the effects of ionising and non-ionising radiation on both mammalian and aquatic species.  Non-targeted (non-DNA) effects such as bystander effects (effects in cells not hit by a radiation track), genomic instability (effects in the progeny of irradiated cells) and adaptive responses (in cells exposed to a high challenging dose after pretreatment with a low adapting dose) are the main focus.  Translational research, involving the correlation of patient radiosensitivity with radiotherapy response and the identification of candidate genes responsible for radiosensitivity, is also conducted.

The Environmental Toxicology group focuses on establishing the toxic effects of contaminants of environmental concern on established cell lines and primary cell culture systems developed in the Centre.  The group routinely cultures and employs a multi-trophic battery of freshwater and marine test species, comprising of the Microtox® test system and several algal, copepod, and amphipod cultures for ecotoxicity tests. 

In addition, the Biospectroscopy group has focused on the use of vibrational spectroscopy as a novel diagnostic tool for cancer and for the identification of novel biochemical markers of cellular damage.
The Nanotoxicology group investigates the toxicity of nanomaterials and the environmental impact of these novel materials which are increasingly being used in industry.

In the RESC purpose built laboratory, housed in the Focas Research Institute, there are excellent facilities for cell and tissue culture of mammalian and aquatic species and an aquarium room to house specimens and research projects.  The laboratory also has facilities for molecular biology and proteomics.