Students from the first year Bsc. Nanobiology have made this final exercise for the course Biomolecular Programming. They have designed a program in the programming language Java that simulates an α-radiation source to kill cancer cells.
Radioactive sources that emit α-radiation are used as cancer drug because their radiation has a very local action, making sure only cells of a tumour can be targeted leaving healthy tissue intact. The α-particles that are emitted can interact with DNA and other molecules, thereby creating DNA damage. While interacting with the DNA, the particles quickly lose their energy until they stop doing damage. The cells in close proximity to the radiation accumulate DNA damage until the cell cannot proliferate any longer. Cells have a DNA damage repair pathway whereby DNA damage can be repaired. This pathway is comprised of many proteins that tightly regulate the repair of different DNA damages. In order to effectively kill the cancerous cells by induced DNA damage, the repair mechanism has to be overcome. In this Final exercise the students had the ability to make a simulation program of α-particles interacting with DNA in cells.
Students that took the effort to add biological relevant creative or extra elements to the final assignment or with outstanding code are listed below, in random order, showing their simulations.
Hereby we present to you the best programs of the year 2024!