Microbeams: a potent mix of physics and biology. Summary of the 5th International Workshop on Microbeam Probes of Cellular Radiation Response.

Single-cell microbeam irradiators are of increasing interest to the biological community. The 5th International Workshop on Microbeam Probes of Cellular Radiation Response, which took place in Stresa, Italy, in May 2001, was attended by about 120 registrants, roughly evenly divided between physicists and biologists. Many new microbeam devices are now under development, and there has been a significant diversification of the biological questions addressed. Most current uses of microbeams have been to address radiobiological questions, but the advent of sub-micrometre targeting capabilities, and the development of new single-cell assays, point to the potential for microbeams to make an important contribution to biological, and not just radiobiological, studies.