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Oral or Poster Contributed Presentation

RAM

RAMAN11: Raman Spectroscopy for Security and Forensics Purposes

Biodosimetric assessment of neutron exposed murine hair by Raman spectroscopy

Wednesday, October 8, 2025
5:10 PM - 5:30 PM EDT
Location: Ballroom E
In fifteen words or less, explain the significance of this contribution (Novel Aspect).: We use Raman spectroscopy of mice hair to show dose and temporal changes.

Abstract Text: Determining dose of radiation exposure in the event of an unexpected exposure such as a nuclear fallout, medical equipment overexposure, or handling nuclear materials is important to determine health risks and needed follow-up care. Raman spectroscopy measures a chemically sensitive fingerprint of inelastically scattered light which is shifted at energies related to vibrations of chemical bonds. It is expected that the Raman spectrum of hair keratin, the proteinaceous bulk of the hair fiber, will respond to neutron radiation exposure. To assess dose and temporal changes in the Raman spectral response cohorts of male and female (n=50 mice) C57BL/6 mice were exposed to at 0.5 Gy/hour. Doses delivered ranged from sham to 1, 2, and 4 Gy. The mice were followed longitudinally, having their hair plucked at each timepoint. Raman spectra were acquired at the bulb of single hairs in triplicate for each specimen across the dose groups and timepoints. Partial least squares (PLS) models were built to assess radiation exposure, time post-exposure, and doses. Dose-response models showed errors as low as 0.7 Gy at Day 150 and larger errors ± 1 Gy around D1. To understand the markers associated with these temporal changes, random forests (RF) and support vector machine (SVM) models were built and interpreted for which Raman features were most important. The machine learning algorithms used here, PLS, RF, and SVM separate classes with different boundaries which allowed us to tease out what features were common for dose determination across timepoints, and which features were related to time post-exposure. This work demonstrates temporal changes in hair keratin with neutron exposure which is an important step towards retrospective biodosimetry. Disclaimer: This research was supported by the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA) TEI-REX program through the Army Research Office contract W911NF-22-2-0140. The views and conclusions contained should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies, either expressed or implied, of ODNI, IARPA, ARO, or the U.S. Government. The U.S. Government is authorized to reproduce and distribute reprints for governmental purposes notwithstanding any copyright annotation therein.