Copper radioisotopes production for nuclear medicine applications: my experience at University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA)

by Ms Gaja Piteo (INFN - LNL)

Monday 26 Jan 2026, 11:00 → 13:00 Europe/Rome

M.B. Ceolin meeting room

Radiopharmaceuticals are widely used tools in advanced nuclear medicine aimed at the diagnosis and treatment of both oncological and non-oncological diseases. Depending upon the type of radiation emitted by the radionuclide concerned, they can be used for either diagnostic imaging (SPECT or PET) and targeted therapy. In recent years, the theranostic approach has emerged, combining diagnosis and treatment by using theranostic radionuclides (or radionuclide pairs) labelled with the same or closely related molecules, thus opening new routes for personalized therapies. Among them, copper radionuclides have shown a growing interest worldwide, mainly due to their peculiar β-, electron capture, and positron decays combined features. Specific (i.e., β- and Auger electrons) emissions aimed at therapy as well as gamma rays emissions (following β- or positron decays) exploited for tomographic imaging may therefore be applied. Radionuclides of interests (mainly radiometals) can be produced either in a nuclear fission reactor or by using cyclotrons coupled with different solid targets (Ni, Zn, Cu and Co). However, the matter of selecting the starting material combined with the target manufacturing procedure may markedly affect the final radionuclidic purity, radiochemical quality, as well as yield, specific activity, and the efficiency of target material recovery. In this seminar, I will present my Ph.D. research activity carried out during my period abroad at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (USA), within the framework of a collaborative project with the LARAMED group. The results obtained from different methods of producing copper radioisotopes through direct activation by cyclotron irradiation of solid targets will be presented. A focus will be placed on the comparison between the new spark plasma sintering process for target production with the established standard technique of electrodeposition, as well as the evaluation of effects of different starting materials on the quality of the final product.

Link Zoom
https://infn-it.zoom.us/j/83869886200?pwd=mb484LIw21vctPGeiA8Rs03ehj6qIg.1

ID riunione: 838 6988 6200
Codice d’accesso: 730366