When people think of atomic energy they often have nuclear reactors in mind. Few, however, realize that another aspect of atomic energy has changed their daily lives during the last 20 or 30 years. When the International Atomic Energy Agency came into being in 1957, one of its major initial objectives was to promote the wider use of radioisotopes and radiation sources in research, industry, agr...

Effective radiation shielding is imperative to safe operation of modern Medical Cyclotrons producing large activities of short-lived radioisotopes on a commercial basis. Like the containment shielding of Medical Linear Accelerators (1), the optimal shielding design of Medical Cyclotrons demands a careful balance between the radiological, economical and often the sociopolitical factors. One is r...

Alpha emitting radioisotopes are promising candidates for radiotherapy of several tumour types due to the high linear energy transfer (LET) of alpha particles in biological tissues. For this purpose research on productions of Ac (via Ra(p,2n)Ac) and of At (via Bi(α,2n)At) is undertaken. The research activities aim at improving production techniques and radiochemical processing yield in order to...

A cohort of persons exposed in utero due to radioactive contamination of the Techa River (Southern Urals, Russia) in the early 1950s represents a unique opportunity for studying radiation risks from chronic exposures in early life. Bone-seeking strontium radioisotopes were the main contributors to haemopoietic tissue doses received in utero from maternal ingestion of radionuclides before and du...

In recent years, shortages of radioisotopes that cannot be stockpiled have created a scenario in which they may be considered, periodically, a scarce medical resource. This discussion focuses on the just allocation of medical radioisotopes and presents the dominant ethical frameworks for rationing and priority setting in the patient populations most affected. Priority setting is necessary when ...

Radioisotopes that emit electrons (beta particles), such as radioiodine, can effectively kill target cells, including cancer cells. Aqueous 32P[PO4] is a pure beta-emitter that has been used for several decades to treat non-malignant human myeloproliferative diseases. 32P[PO4] was directly compared to a more powerful pure beta-emitter, the clinically important 90Y isotope. In vitro, 32P[PO4] wa...

Differential display reverse transcription PCR (DDRT-PCR) is a procedure used to identify the induction or repression of gene expression. In most DDRT-PCR protocols, radioisotopes are incorporated during PCR and the cDNA products are detected by autoradiography. This report describes the fluorescent labeling of cDNAs and their detection on automated sequencers from PE Applied Biosystems. A fluo...

Research carried out by me and my group over the last almost four decades are summarized here. The main emphasis of my work was and continues to be on plant physiology using radiation and radioisotopes. Plants live on water and inorganic elements. In the case of water, we developed neutron imaging methods and produced 15O-labeled water (half-life 2 min) and applied them to understand water circ...

Bone metastases are prevalent among cancer patients and frequently cause significant morbidity. Oncology providers must mitigate complications associated with bone metastases while limiting therapy-related adverse effects and their impact on quality of life. Multiple treatment modalities, including chemotherapy, surgery, external beam radiation therapy, and radioisotopes, among others, have bee...

Nuclear medicine would be greatly aided if compounds were available to promote the excretion of unwanted radioisotopes from biological systems. Such preparations would make possible greater use of long-lived radionuclides in medicine and would reduce some of the environmental hazards associated with nuclear energy. The biochemistry of radioisotope excretion is complicated because there are so m...