Novel radionuclides: demand, production and distribution for translational research in Europe.

Background: In the field of medical and scientific research, radionuclides are used to investigate various physiological and pathological processes. PRISMAP - the European medical radionuclide programme was created to bring together production facilities including intense neutron sources, an isotope mass separation facility, high-power accelerators, biomedical research institutes, and hospitals to support medical research. The aim of this article is to introduce readers with the current status of innovative radionuclides in Europe.

Target Development towards First Production of High-Molar- Activity Sc and Sc by Mass Separation at CERN-MEDICIS.

The radionuclides Sc, 44g/mSc, and Sc can be produced cost-effectively in sufficient yield for medical research and applications by irradiating natTi and natV target materials with protons. Maximizing the production yield of the therapeutic Sc in the highest cross section energy range of 24-70 MeV results in the co-production of long-lived, high-γ-ray-energy Sc and Sc contaminants if one does not use enriched target materials. Mass separation can be used to obtain high molar activity and isotopically pure Sc radionuclides from natural target materials; however, suitable operational conditions to obtain relevant activity released from irradiated natTi and natV have not yet been established at CERN-MEDICIS and ISOLDE.

Novel radionuclides for use in Nuclear Medicine in Europe: where do we stand and where do we go?

Background: In order to support the ongoing research across Europe to facilitate access to novel radionuclides, the PRISMAP consortium (European medical radionuclides programme) was established to offer the broadest catalog of non-conventional radionuclides for medical and translational research. The aim of this article is to introduce readers with current status of novel radionuclides in Europe.

Main Body: A consortium questionnaire was disseminated through the PRISMAP consortium and user community, professional associations and preclinical/clinical end users in Europe and the current status of clinical end-users in nuclear medicine were identified.

Resonant laser ionization and mass separation of Ac.

[Formula: see text]Ac is a radio-isotope that can be linked to biological vector molecules to treat certain distributed cancers using targeted alpha therapy. However, developing [Formula: see text]Ac-labelled radiopharmaceuticals remains a challenge due to the supply shortage of pure [Formula: see text]Ac itself. Several techniques to obtain pure [Formula: see text]Ac are being investigated, amongst which is the high-energy proton spallation of thorium or uranium combined with resonant laser ionization and mass separation.