Solid Target Developments at the Bern medical Cyclotron
Tommaso Stefano Carzaniga, Philipp Häffner, Andreas Türler, Saverio Braccini
University of Bern
Oral Presentation
No Conflicts of Interest
The production of novel medical radioisotopes for theranostics will be essential for the development of personalized nuclear medicine. Among them, radiometals can be used to label proteins and peptides and their optimized supply in quantity and quality for clinical applications represents a scientific and technical challenge. Along this line, medical cyclotrons and irradiation methods have to be further developed.
A research program aimed at the production of PET radio-metals (Ga-68, Cu-64, Sc-44, and Sc-43) is ongoing at the Bern medical cyclotron, where a solid target station with a pneumatic delivery system was recently put in operation. To bombard isotope-enriched materials in form of compressed powders, a specific target coin was conceived and tested. To assess the produced activity at EoB a system based on a CZT detector was developed. The first promising results are presented here and constitute the basis for further developments. In particular, we aim at enhancing the production capabilities of compact solid target stations. For this purpose, the development of a novel irradiation system based on an ultra-compact ~50 cm long beam line and a two-dimensional beam monitoring detector is on-going.