The facilities have been throughly renovated and expanded in the years 2014—2016 to meet the needs of the group, and are now state-of-the art for diverse radiopharmaceutical chemistry applications.
The laboratory currently has two B-type radiosynthesis laboratories equipped with lead-shielded hot cells for the preparation radiopharmaceuticals for PET and SPECT. PET radionuclides 18F and 11C are produced in-house on an IBA Cyclone 10/5 medical cyclotron, and the laboratory has a generator for 68Ge/68Ga. For SPECT, the radionuclides 111In, 99mTc and isotopes of iodine are purchased from commercial vendors. Additionally, the laboratory has its own facility for the in vivo evaluation of the developed tracers in laboratory rodents equipped with anesthesia systems and a Leica CM1950 cryostat microtome for the preparation of sections for histology and autoradiography, and a cell culture laboratory for cell uptake studies and maintenance of human and murine cell lines. The animal facility is compatible with experiments with Autoradiographic instrumentation include the Fujifilm FLA-5100 phosphoimager and ai4r LeBeaver real-time scanners. Through its location at the Department of Chemistry, the group has access to two NMR instruments, ESI-MS and GC for the characterization of small-molecule compounds, and to electron and atomic force microscopy and a ZetaSizer Nano instrument for nanomaterial characterization. Additionally, we have an organic synthesis laboratory for the synthesis of radiolabeling precursors and reference compounds. Both PET and SPECT radiochemistry laboratories have also been equipped with tip sonicators and centrifuges for the manipulation of radiolabeled nanomaterials. We are a user of the NanoSPECT/CT small animal imaging instrument at the Viikki campus: http://www.helsinki.fi/cdr/core/nanospect-ct.html
For more information regarding the general radiopharmaceutical chemistry facilities and instrumentation, contact Dr. Mirkka Sarparanta.
For inquiries about the IBA Cyclone 10/5 cyclotron, contact Kerttuli Helariutta.