Quantifying DNA Damage via Radiation.

[ishy]

I'm trying to compare a couple studies that quantify DNA damage via radiation, but unfortunately, the key studies measure in very different ways. One article discusses SSB/bp/Gy (single stranded breaks per base pair per gray), and a couple others discuss yeilds of SSB in umol/J (micromoles per Joule).

I've made an attempt to find a way to convert between the two methods so I can actually compare the values, but I'm stumped. The following is that attempt:

In the first case, we have a yeild of Single Stranded breaks in micromoles per Joule:

umol/J

To rephrase this in terms of SSBs, apply Avogadro Constant tremembering umol, not mol:

6.022x10^17 SSB/J

And that's as far as I get on this side of the problem. But there's another side of the problem (oh joy):

SSB/bp/Gy

Now, this phrasing is just unpleasant as we are dealing with single stranded breaks in a single stranded scenario. So if there's 1 SSB/bp, there's 1 SSB/2nuc (nucleotides).

SSB/2nuc/Gy

And 1 Gy = 1 J/kg. So it follows that:

SSB/2nuc/J/kg

or:

SSB/2nuc * kg/J

and since we want this to approach what we've got up top, I'm going to collect the SSB and J to rewrite:

SSB/J * kg/2nuc

soooooo, we're left trying to equate, or find a conversion factor for:

6.022x10^17

and

kg/2nuc

Is this possible?