engleski

The floor to IMROH...Shifting the boundaries of discovery in the field of anthropogenic effects on health and the environment

The mission of the Croatian Institute for Medical Research and Occupational Health (IMROH) is to become an excel-lence-driven, modern high quality research institute that will shift the boundaries of dis-covery in the field of anthropogenic effects on health and the en-vironment, and set the standards for academic professionalism and ex-cellence. Established 70 years ago, IMROH is the second largest research institute in Croatia. As a member of the MELODI and ALLIANCE re-search platforms, IMROH participates in the CON-CERT project as the Croatian POM. Its participa-tion is guided by its long-term research and pro-fessional experience in radiation dosimetry (several thousand occupational dosimetry users), radiobiology, radiation protection in medicine (medical X-ray facilities), radioecology (monitor-ing and radioactivity of biosphere compartments) and biodosimetry, which complements activities such as biomonitoring exposure, effects of sus-ceptibility to radiation, and the gathering and archiving of data on unstable chromosomal aber-rations for more than 4000 individuals occupa-tionally exposed to ionising radiation. Research at IMROH com-bines the FISH technique with chromosomal aberra-tions and micronuclei. Primary damage to DNA is assessed by several types of comet assay. Sus-ceptibility biomarkers are evaluated using the Q-PCR technique to deter-mine the occurrence of XRCC1, XRCC3, OGG1, BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, in order to as-sess the burden to the environment due to re-leased radioactive ma-terials. Evaluation of these biomarkers provides significant input to the biological assessment of low level exposure to ionising radiation. IMROH is certified by the State Office for Radio-logical and Nuclear Safety (regulatory body) for radiation protection activities based on accredita-tion of methods and procedures by the Croatian Accreditation Agency. This certification enables IMROH to create new job opportunities for young researchers and enhances its profile to win com-petitive funding for international R&D projects, in particular those based on collaborations with small and medium-sized enterprises in the fields of radiation protection, radiobiology and biodo-simetry, with special emphasis on medical appli-cations.

anthropogenic effects, radiation protection, IMROH

This project has received funding from the Euratom research and training programme 2014-2018 under grant agreement No 662287