June 5, 2019 – BGN Technologies, the technology transfer company of Ben-Gurion University (BGU), introduced a novel method for producing radioisotopes fornuclear medicineand医学成像technologies such ascomputed tomography (CT)scan andpositron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT).
Developed by Alexander Tsechanski, Ph.D., from the BGU Department of Nuclear Engineering, the new technique obviates the need for highly enriched, weapons-grade uranium and a nuclear reactor. Nuclear medicine often necessitates the use of technetium-99m (Tc-99m) as the isotope for imaging, an unstable technetium isotope with a only a six-hour half-life that requires onsite production. In order to produce it in an economically efficient way, currently it requires weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium and a nuclear reactor to generate molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), which decays into technetium-99m (Tc-99m).
新发明使用自然产生的稳定的钼-100 (Mo-100)同位素和线性电子加速器产生Mo-99和Tc-99m1。这个过程还可以同时产生其他短寿命的放射性同位素，如F-18, O-15, N-13和C-11，作为PET扫描的副产品。
BGN Technologies said it is currently looking for partners for further developing and commercializing the technology.
For more information:www.in.bgu.ac.il
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Reference
1. Fedorchenkoa D.V. and Tsechanski A. Photoneutronic aspects of the molybdenum-99 production by means of electron linear accelerators.Nuclear Inst. and Methods in Physics Research B, published online Oct. 23, 2018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nimb.2018.10.018
August 10, 2022
