University scientists have received a five-year, $4.7 million grant from the National Cancer Institute to explore new ways to produce, distribute and use radionuclides to detect cancers.
“There is concern that many newly developed radionuclides that scientists want to use for cancer research are in short supply and not readily available,” said Michael J. Welch, Ph.D., professor of radiology, of molecular biology and pharmacology and of chemistry in Arts & Sciences. “Our current system of production just is not able to keep up with demand.”
The grant will allow Welch, the study’s principal investigator, and his University colleagues to explore potential applications for new radionuclides and work toward establishing systems for assuring that the radionuclides are available to scientists in sufficient quantities.
The grant supports efforts related to two of the three initial focus areas of BioMed 21: imaging and interdisciplinary research.
BioMed 21 is the School of Medicine’s strategic initiative to rapidly bring advances in basic science to the patient’s bedside.
To find ways to give clinicians better views of cancers, researchers in imaging sciences regularly develop new radioactive forms of elements with promising properties.
In some cases, the new radiopharmaceuticals may have characteristics that make them more likely to accumulate in a previously unreachable tumor type, opening up new possibilities for diagnosis and treatment of the tumors.
Scientists have traditionally relied on the U.S. Department of Energy for production of radionuclides. But demand and the diversity of imaging agents available have increased dramatically, making it difficult for the old system to keep up.
Because Washington University’s Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology and several other universities have their own small cyclotrons (facilities that can produce radionuclides), Welch plans to set up a production network among these universities to meet researchers’ needs.
“As an example of how this network might operate, we’re currently producing a radionuclide known as copper-64, shipping it to over 30 institutions throughout the United States, and collaborating with at least seven investigators to test it,” said Welch.
Project leaders on the grant include Jason S. Lewis, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology; Richard Laforest, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiology; and Buck Rogers, Ph.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology.
Lewis’ project focuses on high-yield production of the radionuclides, and Laforest is working on assessing a property of the radionuclides known as their decay rate. Lewis and Rogers are responsible for the collaborative projects within the grant.
“We’re hoping to develop these techniques in ways that can be transferred to other medical research centers, and then perhaps to begin setting up a series of production sites,” Welch said.