Facilities and Equipment

Radioisotope Production

CIRC has a GE PETtrace 800 series 16MeV (proton), 8MeV (deuteron) cyclotron for radioisotope production.  The accelerator is self-shielded and comes equipped with a total of six target positions : a Carbon-11 target, two water targets for the production of [¹⁸F]fluoride, and a further three target positions that are potentially available for alternative isotope production. A Procab installed beside the cyclotron allows the production of [¹¹C]CO and [¹¹C]HCN.

Radiochemistry Research & Manufacturing

There are two Clean Room manufacturing areas at CIRC, with each comprising multiple hot cells and synthesis platforms for aseptic radioisotope manufacture.  Clean Room 1 houses radiochemistry modules for the manufacture of radiotracers labelled with 11C and F18.  Equipment here includes TracerLab C Pro, TracerLab MeI/M and a NEPTIS module.  The Clean Room 2 suite is dedicated to longer lived isotopes and radiometallic compounds with 2 fume hoods in this area for labelling of imaging and therapeutic radionuclides.  Manual and automatic platforms located here include TracerLab FX N, Scintomics GRP module and Gallium generator/labelling module.    

Quality Control Testing

The Quality Control laboratory is fully equipped for the release of PET/SPECT radiopharmaceuticals.  Equipment for the release testing includes multiple radio-HPLCs, radioactivity detectors, Gas and Ion Chromatography systems, dose calibrator and endotoxin testers.

Blood Metabolite Analysis Laboratory

An analytical laboratory is adjacent to the PET Imaging suites, which includes a Perkin Elmer Wizard gamma counter, scales, centrifuges, and HPLC equipment for plasma sample analysis for unchanged radiotracer, enabling generation of input functions required for kinetic analysis and image quantification. A Swisstrace blood sampling system is also available at CIRC to allow for arterial input function analysis

Imaging Modalities

CIRC hosts two hybrid imaging scanners for Positron Emission Tomography studies. Firstly, the Siemens Biograph mMR combined PET/MR imaging system, capable of simultaneous PET and MR acquisition.  The mMR also has multi-nuclear capability for alternative MR-active nuclei including carbon-13, phosphorus-31 and sodium-23. The second PET scanner available at CIRC is a 128 slice Siemens Biograph mCT PET/CT system.