MedAustron - Center for Ion Therapy and Research

Center for Ion Therapy and Research - MedAustron

Wiener Neustadt | Website

Open for Collaboration

Short Description

MedAustron is a center for ion-beam therapy and research, which is unique in Austria. The center is located 50 km south of Vienna in Wiener Neustadt, Lower Austria. By means of an accelerator system, i.e. three ion sources, linear accelerators, and a synchrotron, high-energy particle beams are delivered into three clinically used irradiation rooms for tumor therapy and into one non-clinical irradiation room for research applications. MedAustron is an independent outpatient clinic and cooperates with national and international hospital facilities, universities, and research institutes. Organized in the form of a limited liability company, MedAustron is indirectly owned by the state of Lower Austria.

Contact Person

Thomas Schreiner

Research Services

In cooperation with the Federal Ministry for Women, Science and Research, MedAustron provides beam time for non-clinical and non-medical research projects beside the regular use of the ion beams for tumor therapy since 2016. Currently and also in the upcoming years, 132 beam time shifts of eight hours each are provided per year. According to the operational planning, these shifts are distributed on certain weekends during the year.

In the dedicated non-clinical irradiation room, which is not used for patient treatment, experiments can be set up in front of a fixed horizontal beam line for irradiation with various beam parameters. In total, three different particle species can be used for research applications at MedAustron: protons, helium ions, and carbon ions. The available extraction energies from the synchrotron range for protons from 60 MeV to a maximum of 800 MeV, for helium ions from 40 MeV per nucleon to 400 MeV per nucleon, and for carbon ions from 120 MeV per nucleon to 400 MeV per nucleon. The corresponding number of particles is about 5e8 for carbon ions, 3e9 for helium ions, and 1e10 for protons.

Several laboratories are available, which can be used for the preparation and post processing of the actual beam experiments. For radiation biology, this comprises a main lab with dedicated equipment as well as a cell culture and chemistry lab. In addition to the particle species, which are delivered into the non-clinical irradiation room, a reference radiation source providing X-rays can be accessed in a separated room. Software and dosimetry labs were implemented in order to generate appropriate irradiation plans and to characterize the various particle beam properties.

Methods & Expertise for Research Infrastructure

Beside the regular irradiation of tumors, the beam parameters for research applications are continuously enhanced according to the
requirements of the research users. As an example, the beam flux can be reduced to about 3000 particles per second in accordance with the accelerator operators and experts. Otherwise, the beam flux per pulse can be increased by applying rather short extraction times of about one millisecond micro-pulses. Furthermore, so called "mixed-beams", i.e. carbon ions and helium ions, can be accelerated and extracted together.

In addition to the accelerator experts at MedAustron, various user groups coming mainly from Austrian research institutions have been making use of the available beam time for their investigations for almost ten years. Based on these experiences, new research questions can be academically discussed and potentially realized in a cooperative way.