LARAMED: A Laboratory for Radioisotopes of Medical Interest

The widespread availability of novel radioactive isotopes showing nuclear characteristics suitable for diagnostic and therapeutic applications in nuclear medicine (NM) has experienced a great development in the last years, particularly as a result of key advancements of cyclotron-based radioisotope production technologies. At Legnaro National Laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (LNL-INFN), Italy, a 70-MeV high current cyclotron has been recently installed. This cyclotron will be dedicated not only to pursuing fundamental nuclear physics studies, but also to research related to other scientific fields with an emphasis on medical applications. LARAMED project was established a few years ago at LNL-INFN as a new research line aimed at exploiting the scientific power of nuclear physics for developing innovative applications to medicine. The goal of this program is to elect LNL as a worldwide recognized hub for the development of production methods of novel medical radionuclides, still unavailable for the scientific and clinical community. Although the research facility is yet to become fully operative, the LARAMED team has already started working on the cyclotron production of conventional medical radionuclides, such as Tc-99m, and on emerging radionuclides of high potential medical interest, such as Cu-67, Sc-47, and Mn-52.