Felix Mathew
BSc, Physics, University of Delhi (2017)
MSc, Medical Physics, McGill University (2019)
PhD, Medical Physics, McGill University (in progress)
Principal supervisor: Dr. John Kildea
It is well known that radiation poses a risk of carcinogenesis, which is ultimately a result of mutagenesis in the human genome. Therefore, understanding the underlying biophysical mechanisms of carcinogenesis/mutagenesis always has merit especially when thinking about avoiding radiation-induced cancer. Thus, with this research, we are trying to identify how different radiation induces genomic mutations in cells and if they have distinguishable characteristics that can be used to identify the radiation type involved.
Our idea is to look at the genomic sequence of irradiated human cells using the single-cell whole-genome sequencing (ScWGS) technique. Because radiation interaction is a stochastic process, each cell experiences radiation differently and will have unique mutation profiles. Therefore, we look at the genome of every individual cell one by one using ScWGS. We hope to identify the mutation signature of high-LET neutrons at the end of this work. Apart from getting more insights into radiation carcinogenesis, the findings from this project will be significant in the field of radiation risk assessment and biodosimetry especially in the event of an unforeseen radiation accident.
Radiation-induced carcinogenesis, Neutron RBE, Radiobiology of high- and low-LET radiation, Single-cell whole-genome sequencing, Natural language processing and machine learning 6. Monte Carlo simulation studies, Open science
F. Mathew, H. Wang, L. Montgomery, J. Kildea, J. Natural language processing and machine learning to assist radiation oncology incident learning, J. Appl. Clin. Med. Phys. 222.11(172-84) (2021). www.doi.org/10.1002/acm2.13437.
F. Mathew, C. Chilian, L. Montgomery, J. Kildea, Development of a passive gold-foil nested neutron spectrometer to validate the active current-mode He-3 measurements in a high neutron flux radiotherapy environment, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A. 985(164662) (2021). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.164662
F. Mathew, G. Almakdessi, L. Montgomery, M. Evans, J. Kildea, The impact of treatment parameter variation on secondary neuron spectra in high-energy electron beam radiotherapy, Physica Medica 80(125133) (2020). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejmp.2020.10.016
L. Montgomery, G. Landry, G. Almakdessi, F. Mathew, J. Kildea, A novel MLEM stopping criterion for unfolding neutron fluence spectra in radiation therapy, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A. 957(163400) (2020). www.doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2020.163400
Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University
James O. and Maria Meadows Fellowship, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University
BBME Excellence Award BBME, McGill University
3MT - 2nd Prize and Peoples’ Choice Award, American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM)
Oral Presentation - 1st Prize, BBME, McGill University
Junior Investigator Award, Council of Ionizing Radiation Measurements and Standards (CIRMS)
Mary H Brown Endowment, McGill University
Graduate Excellence Fellowship, Medical Physics Unit, McGill University