Auger electrons--a nanoprobe for structural, molecular and cellular processes

This paper provides a brief review of recently published work on biophysical and biological aspects of Auger processes. Three specific questions have been considered. (1) Does charge neutralisation contribute to molecular damage such as DNA strand breaks? (2) How many DNA double strand breaks are produced by a single decay of DNA bound 125I? (3) W hat is the correlation between number of γH2AX foci and number of double strand breaks ( DSB )? The paper also gives preliminary reports on two new calculations: (a) calculation of the spectrum of Auger electrons released during decay of 124I and (b) the use of Auger electrons in the decay of 125I as a probing agent of novel DNA structures.