MANUFACTURING OF RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL ISOTOPES THROUGH THE LINAC 7 ACCELERATOR FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS NUCLEONICS RESEARCH / COLLABORATION Victor Etxebarria, Jorge Feuchtwanger , Joaquín Portilla, Josu Jugo, Iñigo Arredondo, Inari Badillo, Estibalitz Asua, Rafael Enparantza, Iratxe Ariz, Unai Etxebeste y Iñaki Hernandez Particle accelerators Publicaciones DYNA SL -- c) Mazarredo nº 69 - 2º -- 48009-BILBAO (SPAIN) Tel +34 944 237 566 – www.revistadyna.com - email: dyna@revistadyna.com Pag. 1 / 12 ISSN: 0012-7361 eISSN: 1989-1490 / DYNA Vol.0 DOI: https://doi.org/10.6036/10466 MANUFACTURING OF RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL ISOTOPES THROUGH THE LINAC 7 ACCELERATOR FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS Victor Etxebarria 1 , Jorge Feuchtwanger 1,2 , Joaquín Portilla 1 , Josu Jugo 1 , Iñigo Arredondo 1 , Inari Badillo 1 , Estibalitz Asua 1 , Rafael Enparantza 3 , Iratxe Ariz 3 , Unai Etxebeste 4 y Iñaki Hernandez 4 1 IZPILab-Beam Laboratory. UPV/EHU. Facultad de Ciencia y Tecnología. Barrio Sarriena s/n - 48940 Leioa (España). 2 Ikerbasque. Basque Foundation for Science. Plaza Euskadi 5 - 48009 Bilbao (España). 3 TEKNIKER. Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA). Iñaki Goenaga 5 - 20600 Eibar (España). 4 Egile S.L. Poligono Industrial Kurutz-gain 12-13, 20850 Mendaro (España). DOI: https://doi.org/10.6036/10466 | Recibido: 03/dic/2021 • Inicio Evaluación: 05/dic/2021 • Aceptado: 02/mar/2022 TO CITE ARTICLE: ETXEBARRIA, Victor; FEUCHTWANGER, Jorge; PORTILLA, Joaquín; JUGO, Josu; ARREDONDO, Iñigo; BADILLO, Inari; ASUA, Estibalitz; ENPARANTZA, Rafael, ARIZ, Iratxe; ETXEBESTE, Unai; HERNANDEZ, Iñaki. MANUFACTURING OF RADIOPHARMACEUTICAL ISOTOPES THROUGH THE LINAC 7 ACCELERATOR FOR BIOMEDICAL APPLICATIONS. DYNA, Acelerado, vol. 0, pp. 7. DOI: https://doi.org/10.6036/10466 ABSTRACT: Linac 7 consists of a new generation linear proton accelerator completely designed and built at the Beam Laboratory (IZPILab- Beam Laboratory) of the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU. One of the most important health applications conceived within the Linac 7 project is the production of pharmaceuticals of various species, locally around large clinical centers. Currently, medical radioisotopes are manufactured externally to hospitals and involve the use of distant, expensive and complex infrastructures. This results in long transports, production of large doses of radioisotopes that decay rapidly over the several hours of transport, and also usually only elements with sufficient half-life for use as appropriate pharmaceuticals can be used, with no other options. Our compact Linac 7 linear accelerator allows the manufacture of multiple types of radioisotopes locally and tailored to the corresponding biomedical needs, including specific doses of pharmaceuticals for patients, on demand of the medical staff in our hospitals. Keywords: Particle accelerators, radiopharmacy, nuclear medicine RESUMEN: Linac 7 consiste en un acelerador lineal de protones de nueva generación completamente diseñado y construido en el Laboratorio de Haces de Partículas (IZPILab-Beam Laboratory) de la Universidad del Pais Vasco UPV/EHU. Una de las aplicaciones sanitarias más importantes concebidas dentro de dicho proyecto Linac 7 es la producción de fármacos de diversas especies, localmente en torno a grandes centros clínicos. Actualmente los radioisótopos médicos se fabrican externamente a los hospitales e implican uso de infraestructuras lejanas, caras y complejas. Ello da lugar a transportes largos, producciones de grandes dosis de radioisótopos que decaen rápidamente en las varias horas del transporte y además suelen poderse utilizar únicamente elementos de vida media suficiente para su uso como fármacos apropiados, sin otro tipo de opciones. Nuestro acelerador lineal compacto Linac 7 permite fabricación de múltiples tipos de radioisótopos localmente y a medida de las correspondientes necesidades biomédicas, incluyendo dosis específicas de fármacos para pacientes, a demanda del personal medico en nuestros hospitales. Palabras clave: Aceleradores de partículas, radiofarmacia, medicina nuclear FUNDING Basque Government, Department of Economic Development, Sustainability and Environment: Technologies for the development of compact particle accelerators LINAC7 KK-2018/00020. 1. - INTRODUCTION Nuclear Medicine can benefit from multiple types of radioisotopes that have been generated in the last decades for various medical uses such as therapy or diagnosis by computerized imaging. The oldest technique for computerized imaging using radioisotopes is called SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computer Tomography), using the isotope Technetium-99m 99m Tc, which emits photons (gamma rays), and by means of a camera sensitive to these photons, which rotates around the patient capturing complete images that