Cyclotron and Radiochemistry
The Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Facility occupies 13,000 square feet of dedicated laboratory for the manufacturing of PET radiopharmaceuticals under cGMP. A 16 MeV cyclotron (GEHealthcare PETtrace) located inside a vault is equipped with dual particle (protons and deuterons), dual irradiation mode and six target slots for the production of PET radionuclides – 11C, 13N, 15O, and 18F together with a solid target station for the production of unconventional radionuclides – 61Cu, 64Cu, 76Br, 124I, etc. There are four rooms dedicated to radiopharmaceutical manufacturing for clinical trials and another three rooms dedicated to research and development of new tracers. Each room has its own dedicated space for quality control of products. There are a total of 34 hot cells (Comecer, Italy) for radiopharmaceutical manufacturing. 15 of those are dedicated mini hot cells housing automated manufacturing equipment (GE Fastlab and Tracerlab series). 8 full size hot cells, 3 of them with remote manipulators permit handling and further processing of products and 2 hot cells contain fully automated dispensing equipment. The remaining 9 hot cells are located in the research and development area. The lab is equipped with multiple radio-HPLC systems (Agilent), GC (Agilent) and radio-TLC (ScanRAM - Lablogic). The facility was designed and operates to meet current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) and GLP standards. The facility also operates a Nuclear Pharmacy for dispensing of patient doses.
Carlos Gonzalez-Lepera, Ph.D. – Director
Julius Balatoni, Ph.D. – Sr. Radiochemist
Uday Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D. – Radiochemist
Robert Ta – Radiochemist
Sue Shrum, R.Ph – Charge Radiopharmacist
Greg Waligorski – Cyclotron Engineering Spec.
James Carl - Radiopharmaceutical Lab Technician
Jaquline Jones – Administrative Assistant
Main phone number – 713-563-5455
1881 East Road, Unit 1903
Houston, Texas 77054