Title TBA
Bryce Frentz, Physics Graduate Student
University of Notre Dame
and
Heavy-Ion Production of Theranostic 149Tb for Potential Medical Applications
John Wilkinson, Physics Graduate Student
University of Notre Dame
Theranostics is an emerging field of nuclear medicine that uses radioisotopes to simultaneously image and treat disease. This is typically done by having one decay mode be useful for imaging and a second type of decay used to irradiate cells. One possible theranostic isotope, 149 Tb, performs therapeutic and diagnostic functions with simultaneous alpha and positron decay modes. As a very proton-rich nucleus, 149 Tb (t1/2 = 4.12 h) is restricted to accelerator production and isotope harvesting, with clinical work in close proximity. To date, it has only been produced for clinical tests by a light ion spallation reaction at a high-energy nuclear physics facility. We propose an alternate production method using a heavy-ion reaction close to the Coulomb barrier. In this study 89 Y(63 Cu,x) 149 X was investigated as an indirect production pathway for all A=149 isobars. The preliminary yield data for 149 Tb and other reaction products measured by offline gamma spectroscopy are compared to predictions from the PACE4 fusion-evaporation code. A near-symmetric fission yield is also observed.
Hosted by Prof. Aprahamian
Hosted by Prof. Aprahamian
Originally published at physics.nd.edu.