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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Visualizing and Quantifying Endonuclease-Based Site-Specific DNA Damage
Published on: August 21, 2021
Ion-induced biomolecular radiation damage: from isolated nucleobases to nucleobase clusters
Thomas Schlathölter1, Fresia Alvarado, Sadia Bari
1KVI Atomic Physics, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, Zernikelaan 25, 9747AA Groningen, The Netherlands. tschlat@kvi.nl
Abstract:
A large number of studies are devoted to the investigation of the biomolecular ionization and fragmentation dynamics underlying biological radiation damage. Most of these studies have been based on gas-phase collisions with isolated DNA building blocks. The radiobiological significance of these studies is often questioned because of the lack of a chemical environment. To clarify this aspect, we studied interactions of keV ions with isolated nucleobases and with nucleobase clusters by means of coincidence time-of-flight spectrometry. Significant changes already show up in the molecular fragmentation patterns of very small clusters.
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