MILLIMETER WAVES EXPOSURE SET-UP FOR REAL-TIME MONITORING OF BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES AT A MOLECULAR LEVEL BY NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY

When we deal with the study of the interaction between Millimeter Waves (MMWs) and biological systems, one of the main challenge is to monitor relevant biological processes that characterize a system, during its exposure to the above electromagnetic radiation. This condition should allow one to observe, in real-time, any significant variation of those properties and then, to evaluate the biological effects induced by the radiation and its dependence on various exposure parameters such as frequency, power density, irradiation time, that might affect the response of the system. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) is a very versatile technique for investigating, at a molecular level, several functional properties of various biological systems. Here we describe the experimental set-up used for the exposure of various biosystems to millimeter waves contextually to the acquisition of NMR spectra. The enormous potentiality of our method is underlined by showing some noticeable examples of its application such as on the study of the metabolism of perfused living cells, or for the characterization of the structural and kinetic properties of bilayer membrane models. A brief discussion on the MMW-induced effects observed is also presented.