PRISMA Team
A team that radiates
Radioisotopes for nuclear medicine imaging and therapy, FLASH hadrontherapy, detector characterization, ion beam analysis and mass separation.
- 7PhD students
- 1post-doctoral fellow
- 2engineers, technicians
- 10researchers
PRISMA Team
Medical radioisotopes
What radioisotopes for tomorrow's nuclear medicine? In the context of personalized medicine, the Arronax Nantes community is looking for new radioisotopes for imaging and therapy, or a combination of the two, known as theranostics. We use beams from the Arronax cyclotron (protons, deuterons and alpha particles) and design targets to measure production rates and determine optimal production pathways.
- 2007 PRISMA
- Creation of the team cyclotron, detector, CND
- 2009 CND
- TECHNOCAMPUS EMC2 non-destructive testing
- 2010 ARRONAX
- First irradiations wit the cyclotron
- 2023 SMILES
- Mass separation coupled to laser ionization
Hadrontherapy FLASH
The use of ultra-high-dose-rate (FLASH) proton beams (hadrontherapy) shows great promise in reducing toxicity to healthy tissue compared with conventional radiotherapy. We design and conduct irradiation experiments, in collaboration with physicians and biologists, to demonstrate these effects and identify the underlying physico-chemical mechanisms.
Mass separation by laser ionization
The SMILES project aims to design and build an innovative mass separation device coupled to selective laser ionization, configurable and adaptable for environmental and healthcare applications. It should be operational in 2027 in a new dedicated building at Subatech.
Elemental analysis and detectors
Ion beam analysis is a non-destructive method of determining the elemental composition of samples. With Arronax's high-energy beams, they are particularly well suited to the analysis of precious objects such as heritage objects, which we study in collaboration with the Arc'Antique laboratory in Loire-Atlantique. We are also characterizing detectors, such as the diamond type or those of the DORN project, which will be sent to the far side of the moon to explore its composition.