MINAS TIRITH: a new tool for simulating radiation-induced DNA damage at the cell population level

Area of Science:

• Radiation biology
• Computational biophysics
• Medical physics

Background:

• Understanding radiation-induced DNA damage is crucial for radiobiology and radiation protection.
• Current modeling often uses Monte Carlo simulations for single cells, differing in scale from population-level experiments.
• Stochastic energy deposition leads to non-uniform dose distributions in cell populations, complicating direct comparisons.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce the MINAS TIRITH tool for modeling radiation-induced DNA damage at the cell population level.
• To enable direct comparison between computational modeling and biological experiments.
• To address the scale difference between single-cell simulations and population-based experiments.

Main Methods:

• Utilized precomputed microdosimetric parameters and DNA damage distributions from Geant4-DNA.
• Assigned specific energy (z) to individual cells within a population based on absorbed dose (Dabs).
• Modeled DNA damage events per cell based on assigned specific energy, incorporating stochasticity.

Main Results:

• Validated MINAS TIRITH against Geant4-DNA track structure code and a simulation chain.
• Demonstrated consistency in dose distribution across populations and DNA damage calculations.
• Confirmed the tool's ability to accurately represent radiation effects at the cellular level.

Conclusions:

• MINAS TIRITH provides a novel approach for calculating population-level radiation-induced DNA damage.
• The tool significantly reduces simulation time compared to track structure codes.
• Facilitates more direct and meaningful comparisons between computational models and experimental findings in radiobiology.