International Congress on Photobiology (10th), Tel Aviv, Israel, October 27, 1988-November 4, 1988): Foreign Trip Report

摘要

The purpose of the trip was to attend the 10th International Congress on Photobiology. The Congresses are held every four years and bring together many interacting disciplines and researchers. Subjects range from plants to humans with extensive work on molecules, viruses, and single cells. People attend from most parts of the world and there is an excellent interchange of information. Much of the research work in ultraviolet photobiology overlaps conceptually with radiation biology. Indeed, it was the original detailed understanding of ultraviolet photobiology that has led to our knowledge about DNA repair mechanisms and has laid the ground work for a lot of the quantitative understanding of ionizing radiation effects. The fact that humans deficient in the ability to repair ultraviolet damage to their DNA are at an approximate 10,000-fold greater risk than normal people from sunlight-induced skin cancer is the best available evidence that damage to the DNA of people may be the most important step in carcinogenesis. (ERA citation 14:020636)