Nuclear medicine: Radiochemistry for cancer imaging and therapy Dr. Valery Radchenko,TRIUMF
Event details
The use of radionuclides has become increasingly common in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Combining suitable radionuclides with selective delivery systems, such as antibodies or peptides, enables the creation of targeted radionuclide diagnostics and therapies. These enhance imaging accuracy while minimising damage to healthy tissues during treatment.
Medical radionuclides are primarily produced from two sources: cyclotrons, which use protons; and reactors, which use neutrons. Alternatively, radionuclide generator systems offer a cyclotron/reactor-independent method, in which a parent radionuclide serves as a source for a shorter-lived daughter radionuclide.
In this webinar, Dr. Valery Radchenko will discuss how medical radionuclides are designed and made in order to advance medical imaging and targeted cancer treatment.
This webinar is open to all and also forms part of the Binding Blocks Nuclear Physics Masterclasses for GCSE and A-level students (or equivalent).
About the speaker
Dr. Valery Radchenko is a Research Scientist at TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, and an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia, Chemistry Department. His main research focus is on the production and application of therapeutic radionuclides for Targeted Radionuclide Therapy (TRT). He also serves as a consultant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). He is a radiochemist by training and graduated from Saint-Petersburg State Technical University (Russian Federation) in collaboration with the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (JINR) in Dubna (Russian Federation). He received his PhD from Johannes-Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) in 2013 with a thesis focused on the design of production of a promising radionuclide for immuno-PET: Nb-90. Realising the potential of targeted therapy, he pursued a postdoctoral position at Los Alamos National Laboratory, USA, where he worked as a part of the tri-lab effort on the production of Ac-225 from spallation of thorium with high-energy protons.