Marco Durante (physicist)

Marco Durante (born in 1965 in Naples, Italy) is an Italian physicist, recognized as an expert in the fields of radiobiology and medical physics in charged particle therapy.

During his career, Durante gained extensive experience in the biophysics of heavy ions and space radiation protection performing experiments in top-level institutes all over the world. He developed a new method for biodosimetry of charged particles in order to estimate the late risks of patient undergoing radiotherapy, as well as to predict the consequences of long-term exposures for the astronauts. Concerning space research, he also developed a technique to evaluate the shielding effectiveness of different materials using high-energy ions. Full professor at the Technical University of Darmstadt, Durante is president of the Particle Therapy Co-Operative Group (PTCOG) from July 2022 and previously served in the European Space Agency (ESA) Life Sciences Advisory Group, in the Human Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC) and in the program advisory committees of the GANIL center (France) and KVI Center for Advanced Radiation Technology (Netherlands) particle accelerators. He is currently director of the biophysics department of GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research, and is responsible for the biophysics research in the future FAIR accelerator in Darmstadt. He was previously director of TIFPA in Trento and is a member of the scientific committee of the Italian National Centre of Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO, Pavia, Italy).

Biography
After studying physics, in 1992, Durante got his PhD in radiation biophysics at the University of Naples Federico II with a fellowship at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He made his first post doc in NASA Johnson Space Center (Texas, US) and in 1997 a second post doc at the National Institute of Radiological Sciences (Japan). He has been associate professor at the University of Naples Federico II for 15 years. From January 2006 he is adjunct professor at the Temple University and from November 2008 he is full professor of physics at the Technical University of Darmstadt. In October 2007 he became director of the biophysics department of GSI Helmholtz Centre for Heavy Ion Research taking over from Gerhard Kraft.

During his studies he developed strong interest in charged particle therapy, cosmic radiation, radiation cytogenetics, radiation biophysics. With his research, he gave outstanding contributions in radiation biophysics. Currently, Durante's research efforts are directed toward the optimization of charged particle therapy, mainly focusing on reducing the costs and increasing the benefits of this treatment. Concerning radiation risk during space exploration, Durante is involved in experimental and theoretical studies aiming at the improvement of the risk assessment. He is recipient of a 2020 European Research Council Advanced Grant on radioactive ion beams in radiotherapy (BARB).

Awards

 * International Association for Radiation Research 2023 Henry S. Kaplan award
 * Radiation Research Society 2020 Gioacchino Failla award
 * Bacq & Alexander award of the European Radiation Research Society 2013 (ERRS).
 * IBA-Europhysics award for Applied Nuclear Science and Nuclear Methods in Medicine from the European Physics Society (2013).
 * 8th Warren K. Sinclair Award of the US National Academy of Sciences (2011).
 * 60th Timofeeff-Ressovsky medal by the Russian Academy of Sciences (2010).
 * Galileo Galilei prize from the European Federation of Organizations for Medical Physics (2005).

Publications
Durante is co-author of over 450 papers in peer-reviewed scientific journals (Scopus h-index=61), including high-impact factor reviews on Nature Journal, Lancet Oncology, PNAS, and Reviews of Modern Physics, and is member of the Editorial Board of several of them.

Selected recent publications:
 * C. Graeff, L. Volz, M. Durante, Emerging technologies for cancer therapy using accelerated particles, Prog. Part. Nucl. Phys. 131 (2023) 104046.
 * M.-C. Vozenin, J. Bourhis, M. Durante, Towards clinical translation of FLASH radiotherapy, Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 19 (2022) 791–803.
 * M. Durante, J. Debus, J.S. Loeffler, Physics and biomedical challenges of cancer therapy with accelerated heavy ions, Nat. Rev. Phys. 3 (2021) 777–790.
 * M. Durante, A. Golubev, W.-Y. Park, C. Trautmann, Applied nuclear physics at the new high-energy particle accelerator facilities, Phys. Rep. 800 (2019) 1–37.
 * M. Durante, R. Orecchia, J.S. Loeffler, Charged-particle therapy in cancer: clinical uses and future perspectives, Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 14 (2017) 483–495.
 * F. Natale, A. Rapp, W. Yu, A. Maiser, H. Harz, A. Scholl, S. Grulich, T. Anton, D. Hörl, W. Chen, M. Durante, G. Taucher-Scholz, H. Leonhardt, M.C. Cardoso, Identification of the elementary structural units of the DNA damage response, Nat. Commun. 8 (2017).
 * R.L. Hughson, A. Helm, M. Durante, Heart in space: effect of the extraterrestrial environment on the cardiovascular system, Nat. Rev. Cardiol. 15 (2017)
 * J. Mirsch, F. Tommasino, A. Frohns, S. Conrad, M. Durante, M. Scholz, T. Friedrich, M. Löbrich, Direct measurement of the 3-dimensional DNA lesion distribution induced by energetic charged particles in a mouse model tissue, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 112 (2015) 12396–12401.
 * Durante M., Reppingen N., Held KD. Immunologically augmented cancer treatment using modern radiotherapy Trends Mol. Med. 19 (2013) 565-582.
 * Loeffler JS., Durante M. Charged particle therapy - optimization, challenges and future directions Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 10 (2013) 411-424.
 * Pignalosa D., Durante M. Overcoming resistance of cancer stem cells Lancet Oncol. 13 (2012) e187- e188.
 * Durante M., Cucinotta FA. Physical basis of radiation protection in space travel Rev. Mod. Phys. 83 (2011) 1245-1281.
 * Newhauser WD., Durante M. Assessing the risk of second malignancies after modern radiotherapy Nat. Rev. Cancer 11 (2011) 438-448.
 * Durante M., Loeffler JS. Charged particles in radiation oncology Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 7 (2010) 37- 43.
 * Jakob B., Splinter J., Durante M., Taucher-Scholz G. Live cell microscopy analysis of radiation-induced DNA double-strand break motion Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 106 (2009) 3172-3177.
 * Durante M., Cucinotta FA. Heavy ion carcinogenesis and human space exploration Nat. Rev. Cancer 8 (2008) 465-472.
 * Cucinotta FA., Durante M. Cancer risk from exposure to galactic cosmic rays: implications for space exploration by human beings Lancet Oncol. 7 (2006) 431-435