First RIANA-supported experiment at CMAM gets underway

We are excited to announce the start of the first experiment hosted at the Centro de Micro-Análisis de Materiales (CMAM) through access provided by the RIANA project.

Led by Teresa Pinheiro (Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Universidade de Lisboa), the project explores the use of gold-coated nanodiamonds (NDAu) as radiosensitizers to enhance the effectiveness of proton therapy. Using CMAM’s 10 MeV proton beam irradiation facilities, the team will investigate biological responses in both 2D cell cultures and 3D tumour spheroid models that better mimic the tumour microenvironment.

Following the irradiation campaign at CMAM, the project will continue at the Ruđer Bošković Institute (RBI, Croatia), where advanced MeV TOF-SIMS analyses will provide detailed insights into lipid distributions and cellular responses to radiation.

This experiment marks an important milestone for CMAM and highlights how the RIANA (Research Infrastructure Access in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology) project enables researchers to combine complementary capabilities across European research infrastructures to tackle major challenges in cancer therapy.

We look forward to supporting this exciting work and welcoming many more RIANA users to CMAM in the future.