Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group, North America

Marco Durante was appointed as the Director of the Trento Institute for Fundamental Physics and Applications (TIFPA), of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN), in April 2015. He previously served as Director of the Biophysics Department at GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research (Darmstadt, Germany) since 2007. He is also Professor of Physics at the University of Naples Federico II in Italy, Adjunct Professor at the Temple University in Philadelphia (USA) and at the Gunma College of Medicine in Japan.

Dr. Durante got his PhD in physics in 1992 and has dedicated his research efforts to the biophysics of high-energy charged particles, with applications in cancer therapy and space radiation protection. He is generally recognized as world leader in the field of particle radiobiology and medical physics and is co-author of over 300 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals (h-index=38) and one patent on proton therapy (EU patent WO2013083333). He is currently chair of the ESA Life Sciences Advisory group and of the ESA Topical Team on Space Radiation, vice-chair of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG), member of the technical-scientific Committee of the Italian Hadrontherapy Center (CNAO) and of the Program Advisory Committee of the GANIL (Caen, France), KVI (Groningen, The Netherlands), and LNS (Catania, Italy) accelerators. Dr. Durante was President of the International Association for Radiation Research (IARR) 2011-15, and is Associate Editor in several International scientific journals (Br J Radiol, Int J Particle Ther, Phys Med, Radiat Environ, Biophys J Radiat Res, Life Sci Space Res, JINST).

He has been awarded several prizes for his outstanding contributions to charged particle biophysics, including:

• 60th Timofeeff-Ressovsky medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences
• 8th Warren K. Sinclair Award of the US National Academy of Sciences
• 2013 IBA-Europhysics award for Applied Nuclear Science and Nuclear Methods in Medicine (European Physics Society)
• 2013 Bacq & Alexander award of the European Radiation Research Society (ERRS)

Ten Selected Publications

1. Cucinotta FA, Durante M. Cancer risk from exposure to galactic cosmic rays: implications for space exploration by human beings. Lancet Oncol. 7:431-35, 2006.
2. Durante M, Cucinotta FA. Heavy ion carcinogenesis and human space exploration. Nat Rev Cancer. 8:465-472, 2008.
3. Jakob B, Splinter J, Durante M, Taucher-Scholz G. Live cell microscopy analysis of radiation-induced DNA double-strand break motion. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 106:3172-77, 2009.
4. Durante M, Loeffler JS. Charged particles in radiation oncology. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 7:37-43, 2010.
5. Newhauser WD, Durante M. Assessing the risk of second malignancies after modern radiotherapy. Nat Rev Cancer. 11:438-48, 2011.
6. Durante M, Cucinotta FA. Physical basis of radiation protection in space travel. Rev Mod Phys. 83:1245-81, 2011.
7. Pignalosa D,  Durante M. Overcoming resistance of cancer stem cells. Lancet Oncol.13:e187-8, 2012.
8.  Loeffler JS, Durante M. Charged particle therapy - optimization, challenges and future directions. Nat Rev Clin Oncol. 10:411-24, 2013.
9. Durante M, Reppingen N, Held KD. Immunologically augmented cancer treatment using modern radiotherapy. Trends Mol Med. 19:565-582, 2013.
10. Mirsch J, Tommasino F, Frohns A, Conrad S, Durante M, Scholz M, Friedrich T, Löbrich M. Direct measurement of the 3-dimensional DNA lesion distribution induced by energetic charged particles in a mouse model tissue. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 112:12396-401, 2015.