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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.
A. De Groof, S. Poedts
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 49 | Number 2 | February 2006 | Pages 477-488
Technical Paper | Plasma and Fusion Energy Physics - Special Topic | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST06-A1146
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Simulations of Coronal Mass Ejections (CMEs) evolving in the interplanetary (IP) space from the Sun up to 1 AU are performed in the framework of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD). The aim is to quantify the effect of the background solar wind and of the CME initiation parameters on the evolution and on the geo-effectiveness of CMEs. The shocks and magnetic clouds related to fast CMEs in the solar corona and interplanetary space play a crucial role in the study of space weather. Better predictions of space weather events require a deeper insight in the physics behind them. Different solar wind models are considered in combination with different CME initiation models: magnetic foot point shearing and magnetic flux emergence. The simulations show that the initial magnetic polarity substantially affects the IP evolution of the CMEs influencing the propagation velocity, the shape, the trajectory (and, thus, the geo-effectiveness).
