Based on the “One-Three-Five” Strategic Planning of the institute, the Medical Physics (MP) group focuses on the research and development of therapeutic techniques related to heavy-ion cancer therapy, studies on the mechanisms, safety and effectiveness of heavy ion therapy, and the new application of particle beam in bio-medicine.  

Through years of efforts, the MP group together with the other related groups of the institute has promoted heavy-ion cancer therapy from basic research to clinical application of tumor patient treatment with heavy ions, and becomes one of the important bases for the research of heavy-ion therapeutic techniques and relevant mechanisms in the world. At present, there are two key laboratories, Key Laboratory of Heavy Ion Radiation Biology and Medicine of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Gansu Provincial Key Laboratory of Basic Research on Heavy Ion Radiation Application in Medicine. 

Currently, there are 21 faculty members in the group, including 5 professors, 13 associate professors and 3 research assistants. In addition, there are 10 Ph.D students, 12 master students and 2 postdocs. Among the faculty, there are 4 doctoral supervisors and 11 master’s tutors. 

The main research activities aim at providing theoretical basis and technical support for heavy-ion cancer therapy, and expanding the application of particle beams in bio-medicine in due time. After years of efforts, the MP group has established unique research platforms with obvious professional characteristics and interdisciplinary fields, such as cell and molecular biology laboratory, pathology laboratory, cardio cerebrovascular laboratory, model animal laboratory, Monte Carlo simulation platform, target motion simulation platform, heavy-ion radiotherapy treatment planning system platform, etc. 

The main research fields in the MP group are as follows: 

1. Research and development of heavy ion therapeutic techniques, including studies on the conformal and intensity-modulated radiotherapy technology, heavy ion radiotherapy treatment planning system, the application of artificial intelligence technology in radiotherapy, heavy ion dosimetry, and so on.  

2. Studies on the mechanisms, safety and effectiveness of heavy ion therapy, including screening of radiation-related biomarkers, radiation effect and mechanism based on model organisms, the combination of radiation and immunity, auto-transplantation aided radiotherapy, and so on. 

3. Basic research on the new application of particle beams in bio-medicine, including neutron capture therapy (NCT) technique, non-tumor diseases treatment with heavy ions, targeted radioisotope drugs, and so on. 

In recent 5 years, the Medical Physics group has undertaken and completed a number of national and provincial scientific research projects with a total fund of more than 30 million RMB, including the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program), the Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National Key Research and Development Program of China, the Key Deployment Project of Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Key Project of Gansu Provincial Science and Technology, and so on. The group has published more than 60 SCI articles, participate in the compilation of two monographs and won provincial and ministerial awards for many times. 14 Chinese invention patents, 1 American patent, 1 European patent and 2 software copyrights have been authorized. A number of staff were invited to make oral reports in international conferences. A carbon ion radiotherapy treatment planning system (ciPlan) has been developed, which is the first of its kind in China and provides a substantial basis for clinical application of the medical heavy-ion accelerator demonstration facility.