Speaker
Description
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death worldwide, requiring innovative methods for its treatment such as targeted alpha therapy with Bi-213-based radiopharmaceuticals. Alpha radiation is especially promising as it enables maximum destruction of malignant cells while minimizing cytotoxicity on the surrounding healthy tissue. However, current challenges in separating the radioactive Bi-213 from the mother Ac-225 isotope prevent more widespread use in a clinical environment despite the promising results. Therefore, the development of an innovative new sorbent material with a long operational lifetime (~10 days), shaped to enable the required fast (de)-sorption kinetics (≥80% Bi-213 yield in 2 mL eluate), is needed. Moreover, the harsh separation conditions—exposure to highly acidic media (< pH 3) and high radiation doses (~10 MGy absorbance over 2 weeks)—limit the number of materials qualified for this application. Although inorganic support materials show potential, they need to be shaped to an appropriate macroscopic architecture which allows sufficiently fast (de)-sorption kinetics. The aim of this work is to develop a micron-sized core-shell type stationary phase consisting of a Ti-support with tuned surface porosity that promote the desired fast (de)-sorption kinetics, while adjusting chemical composition and structural features to provide optimal separation performance (selectivity and yield) in combination with radiation and acid stability.