Novel radiopharmaceutical materials for medical applications

Radiopharmaceuticals are used extensively as diagnostic and therapeutic agents in nuclear medicine. These medicinal products contain a radioisotope in their molecule structure. The molecule conveys the radioisotope to specific organs, tissues or cells whilst the radioisotope is selected for its radioactive properties.

Radioisotopes emitting penetrating gamma rays or positrons are used for diagnostic imaging where the radiation has to escape the body before being detected by a specific device (SPECT/PET scanner). Typically, the radiation emitted by an isotope used for imaging vanishes completely after 1 day through radioactive decay and normal body excretion. The most common isotopes for imaging include 99mTc, 123I, 131I-131, 18F and 68Ga. Meanwhile, radioisotopes emitting short range particles (alpha or beta) are used for therapy due to their power to lose all their energy over a very short distance, thereby causing a lot of local damage (such as cell destruction). This property is used for therapeutic purposes: cancer cells destruction, pain treatment in palliative care for bone cancer or arthritis. Such isotopes usually stay longer in the body than imaging ones; this is intentional in order to increase treatment efficiency, but still remains limited to several days. The most common therapeutic isotopes include 131I, 89Sr, 90Y, 153Sm and 177Lu.

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NOMATEN_description of basic infrastructure for radiopharmaceuticals (2.27 MB)


This project has received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under grant agreement No 857470 and from European Regional Development Fund
via Foundation for Polish Science International Research Agenda PLUS programme grant
No MAB PLUS/2018/8.
Poland
The project is co-financed from the state budget within the framework of the undertaking of the Minister of Science and Higher Education "Support for the activities of Centers of Excellence established under Horizon 2020".

Grant: 5 143 237,70 EUR
Total value: 29 971 365,00 EUR
Date of signing the funding agreement: December 2023

The purpose of the undertaking is to support entities of the higher education and science system that have received funding from the European Union budget in the competition H2020-WIDESPREAD-2018-2020/WIDESPREAD-01-2018-2019: Teaming Phase 2. in the preparation, implementation and updating of activities, maintenance of material resources necessary for carrying out activities, acquisition and modernization of scientific and research apparatus, maintenance and development of personnel potential necessary for the implementation of activities, and dissemination of the results of scientific activities.