Partner 7. National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF)
Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute
48 Vassileos Constantinou Avenue
11635 Athens - Greece

Scientific team

Name	Position		Task
Dr. A. C. Cefalas	Team leader		Team coordination
Dr E Sarantopoulou	Post-doc		Scientist responsible for WP2
Ms Z. Kollia	PhD student		Sample preparation
Mr S. Chalkiadakis	Technical personnel		Electronic Engineering

Objectives
The research team at the NHRF/Athens has more than 100 man-years experience in the spectroscopy of high excited electronic states of matter and in the development of novel imaging techniques at short wavelengths assisted by advanced functional polymeric materials Ultra high vacuum mass spectrometry, and the laser induced fluorescence techniques are the main analytical tools for investigating the photo-dissociation dynamics in organic matter.
Research applications are directly related to the imaging of biological specimens in vivo where details of DNA and RNA structures are revealed with resolution better than 20nm. Experience on structural damages on biological matter coused by light at different spectral regions will be directly transferred to the THz spectral region. In particular work within the THz-BRIDGE project will be focused on the investigation of potential structural damages of the five DNA and RNA bases by directly detecting molecular photo-fragments following GHz and THz illumination.

Workplan
The NHRF will mainly contribute to Workpackage 2.1 with 39 person-months. The main task is to register any structural damages of the RNA and DNA bases under THz irradiation, and ultra high vacuum quadrupole mass spectroscopy techniques will be used, A similar method was previously applied for the investigation of structural damages in biological macromolecules at shorter wavelengths. NHRF will also contribute to the survey on THz exposure at occupational sites.