  Light-ion microbeams provide a unique opportunity to irradiate biological
samples at the cellular level and to investigate radiobiological effects at low
doses of high LET ionising radiation. Since 1998 a single-ion irradiation
facility has been developed on the focused horizontal microbeam line of the
CENBG 3.5 MV Van de Graaff accelerator. This setup delivers in air single
protons and alpha particles of a few MeV onto cultured cells, with a spatial
resolution of a few microns, allowing subcellular targeting. In this paper, we
present results from the use of the GEANT4 toolkit to simulate cellular
irradiation with the CENBG microbeam line, from the entrance to the microprobe
up to the cellular medium.
