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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. J. H. Donné, C. J. Barth, H. Weisen
Fusion Science and Technology | Volume 53 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 397-430
Technical Paper | Plasma Diagnostics for Magnetic Fusion Research | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1676
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Laser-aided diagnostics are widely applied in the field of high-temperature plasma diagnostics for a large variety of measurements. Incoherent Thomson scattering is used for highly localized measurements of the electron temperature and density in the plasma. Coherent Thomson scattering yields information on the fast ion population in the plasma and/or depending on the geometry and wavelength chosen electron density fluctuations. Interferometry and polarimetry are often combined in a single diagnostics setup to measure the electron density and the component of the magnetic field parallel to the laser chord. Density fluctuations can be measured by means of phase contrast imaging, scattering, and various other laser-aided techniques. This paper is primarily focused on laser diagnostics utilized in the mainstream magnetic confinement research (tokamaks and stellarators with some examples from other devices if applicable). In the paper a brief tutorial introduction in each of the techniques is given, followed by a description of some typical implementations on magnetic confinement devices and some examples of recent experimental results. For each of the techniques the potential application to the ITER tokamak is also discussed. The paper is not meant as a comprehensive and exhaustive review giving a proper tribute to all the work that has been done in this field over the years.