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About

Operating under the umbrella of Dr. Gayle Wolschak’s laboratory at Northwestern University, the Northwestern University Radiobiology Archives (NURA) is a repository and archive consisting of digitized data, databases, lab notes, records, and parafin tissue samples of animal irradiation studies from eight labs in the U.S.  The archives maintain research that was initially funded by the Department of Energy with subsequent efforts for sharing data across scientific communities to deepen the understanding of biological response to potential atomic exposure or environmental contamination funded by multiple agencies including NASA and DOE. The expansive amount of data produced on nearly 80K irradiated animals can help scientific labs to reduce future redundant testing and to understand the data from the scientific experiments that can be used for understanding and mitigating adverse health outcomes.

The tissue studies housed in NURA were conducted on rodents, primates and extensively on beagle dogs as their life span was deemed longest for studies.  Exposures to radiation were in the form of ingestion, intravenous injection, inhalation, and external beam exposure during the years  from 1951 through 1996. The data were shared from lab to lab as each built on one another’s studies. The various labs accumulated all the datasets into an archive over the years 1989-1996 and released some parts to Northwestern University (NU) in 2010. At NU, these materials complemented the existing Argonne animal Janus experiments, Lovelace ITRI and University of Utah tissue data archive materials accumulated between 1996-2010. 

Our Mission

Citing NURA:

Data Archives Page:

  1. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Data Archives. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/ (Accessed date).

Individual Labs Data Page:

  1. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. UC Davis Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/uc-davis/ (Accessed date).
  2. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. University of Utah Data.  From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/university-of-utah/  (Accessed date).
  3. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Argonne National Laboratory ANL Data.  From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/argonne-national-laboratory-anl/ Accessed date).
  4. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Pacific Northwest Laboratory Data.  From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/pacific-northwest-laboratory/  (Accessed date).
  5. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Colorado State University Laboratory Data.  From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/colorado-state-university/   (Accessed date).
  6. Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022.  Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute Data.  From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/inhalation-toxicology-research-institute-data/ (Accessed date).