An integrated microfludic system for PET tracers synthesis invented in ZJU

Radioactive tracers are needed during the Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan, a nuclear medicine functional imaging technique. Dependent on what to detect, different ligands are used for different imaging purposes, including the measurement of glucose metabolic rate, the quantification of cardiac perfusion or the determination of gene expression. Up to date, there are more than 100 tracers that have been designed and this number keeps increasing. However, the synthesis of PET tracers is lacking behind its application and the supply in China is highly dependent on imports.

“Low cost, multiple modules, fast synthesis and automatic reaction, these are four advantages of our system. On this platform, a varaity of PET tracers can be synthesized using modular design strategy of microfludics”, said ZHANG Hong, director, Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging. Furthermore, it is the first device of this kind in China with full IP rights with 9 patents. Several key energy consumption indicators, such as Radiation volume, preparation time, precursor volume, solvent consumption, power consumption, equipment cost, are 62%-98% lower compared to available devices. The invention of this integrated microfludic system will greatly expand clinical application of PET in personalized and precision medicine.

The whole synthetic procedure is fabricated in a small “black” box with 35 cm ×25 cm × 28 cm in dimension and about 7-8 kg in weight. The diameter of the thinnest channel is even smaller than the size of a human hair. The micro-size of the device lead to the high surface to volume ratio and resulting fast thermal heating and cooling rates of reagents can lead to reduced reaction times, increased synthesis yields and reduced by-products.

According to the synthetic requirements of different probes, multiple modules in reactors are designed in this device. This plug-and-Play strategy can be programmed remotely through a software system.

Other inventors of this system are TIAN Mei, PAN Jianzhang, FANG Qun、LEI Ming, XU Guangming and HE Qinggang.