DOE Isotope Program Highlights

News highlights from all participating national laboratories, university facilities, and other research institutions which feature work from the U.S. Department of Energy Isotope Program can be found here.

Increasing the Arsenal of Radioisotopes in the Fight Against Cancer

Increasing the Arsenal of Radioisotopes in the Fight Against Cancer

A new supply of a critical radioisotope advances personalized medicine.
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Uranium to Treat Cancer

Harnessing the Power of Uranium to Treat Disease

New system makes it easier to produce isotopes for radiopharmaceutical therapy.
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Berkeley Lab scientists Leticia Arnedo-Sanchez (from left), Katherine Shield, Korey Carter, and Jennifer Wacker had to take precautions against radioactivity as well as coronavirus to conduct experiments with the rare element, einsteinium. (Credit: Marilyn Sargent/Berkeley Lab)

Discoveries at the Edge of the Periodic Table: First Ever Measurements of Einsteinium

With less than 250 nanograms of the element, the team measured the first-ever einsteinium bond distance, a basic property of an element’s interactions with other atoms and molecules.
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Never Quit - The DOE National Laboratories Fight Against Cancer

Never Quit - The DOE National Laboratories Fight Against Cancer

World Cancer Day is 2/4, a time to reckon with the disease that currently impacts more than a 1M Americans per year.
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Sandra Davern

Sandra Davern: Developing Medical Isotopes to Fight Cancer

When Sandra Davern looks to the future, she sees isotopes sent into the body with a specific target: cancer cells.
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Suzanne Lapi

Suzanne E. Lapi: What did the 2011 Early Career Award allow you to do?

The ECA project enabled me to get started with solid targets for the accelerator production of radioisotopes.
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Los Alamos scientist Veronika Mocko processing cerium-134 in the "Hot Cells" at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

New diagnostic isotope to enhance targeted alpha therapy for cancer

Team brings a new tool for alpha therapy by developing a paired isotope option for PET scans.
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Ce-134 mimicking Ac-225 and Th-227

Ce-134 and La-134 pair as companion PET diagnostic isotopes for Ac-225 and Th-227

Ce-134 and its daughter La-134 can be used as a PET imaging candidate for 225AcIII or 227ThIV.
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Californium-272 production team. Standing left to right - John Courtney, Dan Bettinger, Julie Ezold, Ed Smith, and Scott White.

ORNL's Californium-252 Will Play Pivotal Role in New Reactor Startups

ORNL is the only place in the world capable of efficiently producing the radioisotope californium-252.
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Sandra Davern performs cell based assays to evaluate cell death and DNA damage in response to radiation in order to gain a better understanding of how radioisotope nanoparticles affect the human body.

The Big Impact

When Sandra Davern looks to the future, she sees individualized isotopes sent into the body with a specific target: cancer cells.
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