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Latest News
Researchers report fastest purification of astatine-211 needed for targeted cancer therapy
Astatine-211 recovery from bismuth metal using a chromatography system. Unlike bismuth, astatine-211 forms chemical bonds with ketones.
In a recent study, Texas A&M University researchers have described a new process to purify astatine-211, a promising radioactive isotope for targeted cancer treatment. Unlike other elaborate purification methods, their technique can extract astatine-211 from bismuth in minutes rather than hours, which can greatly reduce the time between production and delivery to the patient.
“Astatine-211 is currently under evaluation as a cancer therapeutic in clinical trials. But the problem is that the supply chain for this element is very limited because only a few places worldwide can make it,” said Jonathan Burns, research scientist in the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station’s Nuclear Engineering and Science Center. “Texas A&M University is one of a handful of places in the world that can make astatine-211, and we have delineated a rapid astatine-211 separation process that increases the usable quantity of this isotope for research and therapeutic purposes.”
The researchers added that this separation method will bring Texas A&M one step closer to being able to provide astatine-211 for distribution through the Department of Energy’s Isotope Program’s National Isotope Development Center as part of the University Isotope Network.
Details on the chemical reaction to purify astatine-211 are in the journal Separation and Purification Technology.
K. Ida, Y. Miura, T. Ido, Y. Nagashima, K. Shinohara
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 122-138
Technical Paper | JFT-2M Tokamak | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1091
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
The mechanism of E × B flow formation, the effect of the E × B flow on parallel flow, the reduction of fluctuations by the shearing effect of the E × B flow shear, and the relation between the geodesic acoustic mode (GAM) and density fluctuations are discussed based on the experiments using various Er measurements in the JFT-2M tokamak. The experiments in plasmas with H-mode and counter-neutral beam injection (NBI) mode show that the feedback loop of the E × B flow shear, the fluctuation suppression, and an increase of ion diamagnetic flow are key to the formation of the transport barrier in toroidal plasmas. Two important effects of the radial electric field are presented: One is fluctuation suppression by the E × B flow shear, and the other is a drive of the parallel flow by radial electric field, which explains the driving mechanism of a spontaneous toroidal flow. The relation between the GAM and the density fluctuations is also discussed. The GAM is observed to be excited by the nonlinear coupling of density fluctuations, while the GAM itself affects the amplitude of the density fluctuations.
