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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 53 | Number 2 | February 2008 | Pages 307-313
Technical Paper | Transport Theory | dx.doi.org/10.13182/FST08-A1716
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
An ideal plasma of electrons and a single species of ions in the low collisionality limit subject to an almost straight magnetic field is considered. In such conditions, the linear theory of transport determines the 3 × 1 matrix of dissipative fluxes [hat]Jr namely, the electric current, the electronic heat flux and the ionic heat flux, in terms of a 3 × 1 matrix of thermodynamic forces [hat]X combining the electric field with the gradients of the densities and of the temperatures. The classical transport coefficients are 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. The theory is developed in the framework of the statistical mechanics of charged particles starting from the Landau kinetic equation.
