Transcript of What is Radiopharmaceutical Science?
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What is Radiopharmaceutical Science?
Non-invasive. [A surgeon cuts skin with a scapel. A large X appears. The scene reverses. The scalpel moves backwards and skin knits back together.]
Enabling image quality. [A patient moves into a CT scanner. An 3D image appears of a human body, rotating.]
Precision medicine. [A needle is injected into a machine.]
Monitoring the effects of therapy. [A 3D image, labelled Before, shows high-contrast areas in the body's organs. A similar 3D image next to it, labelled after, shows those organs with lower contrast.]
Behind every dose... there is a patient.
A/Professor Andrew Katsifis, Principal Hospital Scientist, Department of Molecular Imagery, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital: As the name suggests a radiopharmaceutical is a combination of a pharmaceutical or any other biochemical entity to which we attach a radionuclide which emits radiation for us to enable to either image or to use in a therapeutic situation. Radiopharmaceuticals are complex products. So the role of radiopharmaceutical scientist, is to discover, develop, produce and undertake quality control of the final product before it's administered into the patient.
The modern radiopharmaceuticals involve the use of very short-lived radionuclides, such as fluorine-18 which has a half-life of 9 minutes, carbon-11 which is a half-life of 20 minutes and gallium-68 which has a half-life of 68 minutes as examples. These radiopharmaceuticals cannot be imported and their transport from manufacturing facilities to hospitals is very restricted, so they must be prepared where the patients reside. Radiopharmaceutical scientists are required to make these products safely and efficaciously.
Radiopharmaceuticals make a difference because they provide information to physicians that allows them to make better informed decisions on patient management. We need more professionals because radiopharmaceutical science, molecular imaging, targeted radio nuclei therapy, are all disciplines within nuclear medicine that are all rapidly growing.
Luke Fincher, Nuclear Medicine Radiologist, St George Hospital | Student, Master of Radiopharmaceutical Science, Macquarie University: As a radiopharmaceutical scientist, it is important that we produce the best possible product to ensure that doses for imaging are accurate, are correctly targeting right part of the body and the therapeutic doses are producing the desired effect.
What excites me about the field of radiopharmaceutical science is we're currently seeing a lot of advances. Imaging technologies that are highly sensitive and highly specific to disease types is greatly improving the detection of disease and improving patient outcome. New therapies are becoming available, again to specifically target patients cancer and help to reduce adverse effects.
Transcript of Student Perspectives - Radiopharmaceutical Science
Brendan Evans, Graduate, Master of Radiopharmaceutical Science Program, Macquarie University: I'm Brendan Evans. I recently completed the Master of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences and I'm currently pursuing further research at Macquarie University. I suggest you study the Masters of Radiopharmaceutical Science as it's a multidisciplinary science which touches on chemistry, physics and biology, so there's a lot of sciences coming together as one. And as an applied science it's very much bench top to bedside, so you can directly see its results helping people. I'd say the two most valuable aspects of the Masters of Radiopharmaceutical Science were first being taught by people who actually work in the industry and leaders in their field and second having the opportunity to work directly at ANSTO on real nuclear medicine research. The research project I did at ANSTO during the Masters was incredibly exciting and now I'm pursuing my own research in radiopharmaceutical sciences at Macquarie University. Overall the Masters has been a great experience.
Wan Shu Chen, Student, Master of Radiopharmaceutical Science Program, Macquarie University: My name is Wan and I'm in my last year of Radiopharmaceutical Science at Macquarie University. I have just completed the coursework part of my degree, which provided me the training and education needed for good laboratory practices and practical skills and I'm planning to move on to a research project looking at the property of nano-rubies and how to use it in imaging. Since I came from a non-science background it's very exciting that this degree offers me the opportunity to study different types of sciences. We've been looking into analytical chemistry, organic chemistry and on the other side, we've been doing a lot of molecular biology, biotechnology, and on top of that we've been trained for doing good laboratory practices and laboratory management and quality control.
Luke Fincher, Nuclear Medicine Technologist, St George Hospital and Student, Master of Radiopharmaceutical Science Program, Macquarie University: So I had already been working for four years as a Nuclear Medicine Technologist at St George Hospital, I was ready for the next challenge for my career. I was working closely with our current radiochemist, Effie Brown, learning some new procedures, developing some skills and when the time came for her to take some time off work the department had great difficulty finding a qualified replacement. I offered to take on the role and luckily enjoyed the work, and she encouraged me to enroll in the Master's program through Macquarie University. So the Bachelor of Medical Radiation Science degree and working as a Technologist had given me knowledge and understanding of working with radiation and basic radiopharmaceutical preparation, however the the chemistry side of my training and study was quite limited. A good understanding of chemistry is essential to understand the reactions behind the product synthesis and producing a radiopharmaceutical. The original degree medical radiation science covered some but the master's program has given me a much better understanding of radiopharmacy duties.
Vaughn Moon, Graduate, Master of Radiopharmaceutical Science Program, Macquarie University:When I was making my decision about which pathway I wanted to take, there was some consideration as to my own personal contribution in the sciences, and part of that was how I could make some form of contribution to the community as a whole. Radio chemists worldwide are a fairly small family, there are not too many of us, and we offer within the health industry a highly specialized role that offer critical pharmaceuticals for diagnostic and therapy. And because of that, as people exit the industry we need new people to join our scientific family to offer those important services in the future.
