Scientific activity
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
1. RESEARCH
Mauro Belli started his scientific activity in 1967 in the field of biophysics, with a study prepared for his degree in Physics at the Physics Laboratory of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Rome, It was focussed on the development and use of an original method for size distribution measurement of bacterial populations, as a basic tool for research on dynamics of bacterial populations. After a period devoted to structural studies of biomolecules, his main fields of interest became Radiation Biophysics, Radiobiology (at molecular and cellular levels), and Radiation Protection.
Structural biophysics
From 1972 Mauro Belli studied the role played by metal ions, particularly Mg++, in bacterial ribosomes using physico-chemical techniques such as light-scattering and band ultracentrifugation. Later, he undertook pioneering research on the application of synchrotron radiation for structural analysis of nucleic acids, by X-ray absorption and VUV spectroscopy.
Radiation biophysics and radiobiology
Starting from 1977, Mauro Belli created and led at the ISS a multidisciplinary research team devoted to studying the relationships between physical characteristics of radiation, DNA damage and cellular effects. This team gained great expertise on the biological effects of charged particles and their implications for radiation protection and radiotherapy (in particular for hadrontherapy). In the late ‘80s the systematic studies with protons and alpha-particles undertaken by his group in collaboration with the group at the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN) in Legnaro (Padova, Italy) and later with the group led by D.T. Goodhead at the Medical Research Council (Didcot, UK) gave experimental evidence that the biological effectiveness, in terms of cell killing and mutations, of light ions depends not only on the "linear energy transfer", currently used in Radiation Protection as a descriptor of radiation quality but also on the ion type, highlighting the importance of the radiation track structure. Later, he and his group focussed their work on the DNA damage caused by radiations of various qualities in the framework of Italian, European and international (ASI-NASA) programmes. This work showed that different ions can produce DNA fragments of different lengths, a feature related to lesion reparability, and contributed to a better understanding of the mechanism of radiation damage in cells.
Mauro Belli subsequently addressed his research activity on the biological effects of ionizing radiation at low dose and/or protracted exposure (an issue having important potential consequences in radiation protection), studying the so-called “non-targeted effects” notably the bystander effect and the adaptive responses, with both experimental and modelling approaches. With his group he also studied the influence of the background radiation on living matter by exploiting the low radiation background environment in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory of the INFN, finding that cells cultured underground acquired traits that were not manifest in the cultures maintained at reference conditions, a phenomenon suggestive of an adaptive role for the natural background radiation.
Mauro Belli was scientific co-ordinator/PI of many national and European research projects at the ISS, including various Euratom projects and NASA-Italian Space Agency collaborative projects.
Radiation protection
Mauro Belli was also active since 1973 in studies related to various aspects of radiation protection, particularly those related to the use of radiation in medicine, industry and consumer products.
On these aspects he was an advisor and expert of the Italian Ministry of Health for several decades (1977 through 2009)
In the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident he contributed to the efforts of the Italian Authorities to face the consequences of the contamination on the Italian territory. After September 11, 2001, he collaborated with these Authorities to identify possible scenarios for terrorist attacks in Italy. In 2009 he was also appointed by the Italian Minister of Environment as an advisor for the health protection issues related to nuclear plants.
He has contributed to the European strategy on the low dose risk research as one of the seven formative members of the ”High Level and Expert Group (HLEG) on European low-dose risk research” and co-author of the HLEG Report. He also contributed to the foundation of the European platform known as MELODI (“Multidisciplinary European LOw Dose Initiative”). Since 2012 he is a member of the MELODI Scientific Committee.
2. TEACHING
Mauro Belli has taught Physics as Associate Professor of Physics at the Perugia University (1980-82), and Radiobiology for the postgraduate Course on Medical Physics at the Catholic University of Rome (2001-2009) and at the University of Cagliari (2010-11 and 2012-13).
3. MEMBERSHIPS and COMMITTEES
- Member of the Board of the Italian Association for Radiation Protection (AIRP) from 1985 to 1989, Director of the “Bollettino AIRP 1985-89
- Member Italian Radiation Research Society (SIRR), associated to the International Association on Radiation Research (IARR).
- President of the Italian Radiation Research Society (SIRR) from 1990 to 1993.
- Co-ordinator Radiobiology Committee of the Italian Project TERA (Hadrontherapy) (1994-98)
- Member of the Italian Commission on the problems related to Nuclear Energy appointed by the Italian Minister of Environment (2009-10)
- Italian delegate in the Management and Consultative Committee of the EURATOM-Radiation Protection Programme (1978-85)
- Italian delegate in the Consultative Committee of the EURATOM-Fission Programme for FP6 (2002-2006), FP7 (2007-2011) and FP7+2 (2012-2013) Framework Programmes.
- Formative member of the ”High level and Expert group (HLEG) on European low-dose risk research” and co-author of the HLEG Report.
- Member of the Scientific Committee of the European Platform MELODI (“Multidisciplinary European LOw Dose Initiative” (2012-).
4. AWARDS
- “Domenico Marotta Prize” (2004) from the Italian National Academy of Sciences, for his research in Radiobiology of densely ionizing radiation.
- “Cavaliere Ordine di merito della Repubblica Italiana” from The President of the Italian Republic (1989).
5. PEER-REVIEWED PAPERS
During his career Mauro Belli has published about 200 peer-reviewed papers mainly on international scientific journals. He is currently consulted as Peer Reviewer of: International Journal of Radiation Biology; Radiation Research, Radiation and Environmental Biophysics, Radiation Protection Dosimetry, Advances in Space Research, International Journal Molecular Science, Cancers.