Chiara Favaretto, PhD student in the “Radionuclide Development” group at the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Sciences, received the NMB/Eckelman Young Investigator Award for the abstract entitled: “Production and radiochemical separation of terbium-155 from enriched gadolinium target material and its preliminary application in SPECT imaging”, presented at the International Symposium on Radiopharmaceutical Sciences (iSRS 2022).
The study showed two possible routes for the production of terbium-155 using proton irradiation. The method developed for the radiochemical separation provided terbium-155 at a quality suitable for radiolabeling at high molar activities, which allowed preliminary in vitro and in vivo studies. The SPECT/CT imaging studies demonstrated the applicability of terbium-155 for imaging purposes along with its potential clinical application for prospective dosimetry with terbium-161 and lutetium-177, enabling the concept of radiotheragnostics.