A flagship initiative of the CMA office is the establishment of OPENMED, an open-access facility for biomedical research based on the existing Low Energy Ion Ring (LEIR) at CERN. LEIR supplies heavy ions to the LHC injector chain for a period of one month per year. The beam energy, size and availability make LEIR an ideal candidate for conversion to a biomedical test-bed facility. Relatively minor modifications to LEIR would allow:
- A horizontal beam line for particle energies of up to 400 MeV per nucleon, with up to 30 cm range in tissues for testing comparative particle ballistics for different ions, dosimetry and cellular responsiveness in humanoid phantoms. .
- A vertical beam line with lower particle energies, as low as 75 MeV for in vitro work using larger cell numbers for radio-sensitizing drug experiments.
- A pencil beam of 5-10 mm FWHM and broad beam of 5×5 cm are relatively easy options.
Adjacent to the LEIR hall, there is sufficient ground space for a well-equipped biological laboratory for cell culture, bio-assays and analysis. OPENMED will provide beams of different ions at various energies, thus allowing medical and radiobiological collaborators to fully investigate biological impacts on tumour cells and biological material, and then to optimise hadron therapy for different cancer types. OPENMED will also enable scientists to test innovative particle detectors and to perform accurate fragmentation studies, in order to improve medical imaging techniques and treatment planning. OPENMED would be open to international users focusing on radiobiology, medical instrumentation, acceleration and beam delivery, diagnostics and dosimetry, as well as basic physics studies.