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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.
B. Weyssow
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 261-267
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Transport | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1125
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
A complete description of a system in equilibrium is provided by the Grand Canonical Distribution. But, systems are generally not in statistical equilibrium. We shall consider the case of an ideal gaz of charged particles. The linear theory of transport determines the 3 × 1 matrix of dissipative fluxes [hat]Jr namely, the electric current and the electronic and ionic heat fluxes, in terms of a 3 × 1 matrix of thermodynamic forces [hat]X defined by the electric field and the gradient of the densities and temperatures. The components of the 3 × 3 matrix of tensors [hat]Lrs of the linear flux-force relations [hat]Jr = [summation]s=19[hat]Lrs[hat]X define the set of transport coefficients. They are evaluated for an ion-electron magnetized plasma in the framework of the statistical mechanics of charged particles starting from the Landau kinetic equation.