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 
paraffin tissue samples of animal irradiation studies from eight labs in the U.S. Over the course of five decades that spanned the cold war years, more than 80,000 research animals underwent controlled exposure to radiation through modalities that simulate different routes of human exposure including ingestion, intravenous injection, inhalation, and external beam exposure. These studies used varying chemical forms of isotopes that would result from a bomb explosion or fallout incident, mainly strontium, plutonium, radium, yttrium, californium, and iodine. Funded by the Department of Energy and its predecessor the Atomic Energy Commission, these research studies aimed to elucidate the biological responses to potential radiation exposure or environmental contamination. Eight labs across the United States predominantly concentrated on these efforts in a succession of studies that gained insights into the health effects of exposures and their correlation to humans. While there were several independent studies of the effects of radiation on animals beginning in the early 1940’s, The Radiobiology Division Laboratory at the University of Utah was the first laboratory to initiate radiation testing on animals for the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Subsequent studies were added shortly after in 1952 at the University of California-Davis, Lawrence Berkeley Lab in 1954, Argonne National Lab in 1956; Pacific Northwest Lab in 1959; Colorado State Lab in 1964; Inhalation Toxicology Research Institute in 1965; and Oak Ridge National Laboratory in 1977.
The data generated from these comprehensive studies were meticulously archived by the U.S. National Radiobiology Archives, operated by Battelle Pacific Northwest National Laboratories, Washington State University and U.S. Transuranium. Dr. Chuck Watson accumulated all the data into an archive over the years 1989-1996 and released it to Dr. Gayle Woloschak, of Northwestern University (NU) in 2010. At NU, these materials complemented the archival materials from Argonne animal Janus experiments, Lovelace ITRI and University of Utah. All these tissue and data archive materials accumulated at NU between 2002-2010 comprise the Northwestern University Radiobiology Archives (NURA). It is imperative that this data be shared with the scientific community to leverage radiological understanding in both clinical and contamination events as well as prevent any further unnecessary animal testing.
Our Mission
See The Data
See our Team
Citing NURA:
Data Archives Page:
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Data Archives. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/ (Accessed date).
Individual Labs Data Page:
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. UC Davis Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/uc-davis/ (Accessed date).
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. University of Utah Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/university-of-utah/ (Accessed date).
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Argonne National Laboratory ANL Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/argonne-national-laboratory-anl/ Accessed date).
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Pacific Northwest Laboratory Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/pacific-northwest-laboratory/ (Accessed date).
- Northwestern University Radiobiology Archive (NURA). 2022. Colorado State University Laboratory Data. From: https://sites.northwestern.edu/nura/data/colorado-state-university/ (Accessed date).
- 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).