On 23 June 2020, a General Meeting of the Russian Academy of Sciences was held — online for the first time in the history of Russian science. RAS President Academician A. M. Sergeev gave a four-hour talk.

Speaking about the main 2019 achievements, he noted an outstanding result obtained jointly by scientists of the Laboratory of Radiation Biology of JINR (Dubna) and Tsyb Medical Radiological Research Centre (Obninsk). Preclinical studies were conducted of a new method of increasing the biological effectiveness of the proton therapy of tumors, which suggests the pre-exposure administration of cytosine arabinoside (AraC). It was shown that after irradiation in the presence of AraC, the DNA double-strand (non-repairable) break yield sharply increases. A series of experiments were conducted on model animals (mice inoculated with a melanoma tumor), which confirmed a significant slow-down of tumor development. A patent was obtained for a new method of amplifying the radiation exposure of living cells.

More information about the patent

A record of the RAS General Meeting video conference (3:32:00: the AraC slide):