DOE Announces $1 million in Funding for Radioisotope Research

April 11, 2022

On April 11, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced $1 million in funding for isotope development. The funding will support three awards for research and development on newly developed radioisotopes for potential use in preclinical and clinical trials. The funding is part of a program to produce critical isotopes that are unavailable or in short supply for science, medicine and industry.

Topics funded seek to address key challenges associated with the advancement of therapeutic radioisotopes. Awardees include:

• Nikki Thiele, Oak Ridge National Laboratory: Establishing the chelation chemistry of antimony-119 for targeted Auger therapy
• Jonathan Engle, University of Wisconsin: Establishing the chelation chemistry of antimony-119 for targeted Auger therapy
• Robert Flavell, University of California San Francisco: Development of ¹³⁴Ce/¹³⁴La: A PET imaging surrogate for ²²⁵Ac radiotherapeutics

Total funding is $1 million for awards lasting up to two years in duration, with a total of $1 million in FY 2022 dollars and outyear funding contingent on congressional appropriations for both awards.

SNMMI is highly supportive of DOE's funding of awards for nuclear medicine, which currently has many exciting opportunities.

Read the full announcement.