Isotopes in Nanoparticles ─ Fundamentals and Applications

The field of nanotechnology has attracted ever-increasing interest over the last few decades. There is currently large-scale incorporation of NPs into many industrial and commercial products, and multi-decorated particles are continuously being evaluated as potential biomedical agents. One of the main challenges to the biological evaluation of NPs (both in vitro and especially in vivo) is the difficulty associated with their tracking. Isotopic labelling, and especially radiolabelling, is a very useful and powerful strategy to determine non-invasively the biodistribution and biological fate of NPs in vivo after administration or involuntary incorporation into living organisms.

This book starts with an introduction to the different types of nanomaterials most commonly used in both the biomedical and industrial areas. It then compiles and discusses the various methods reported to date for the radiolabelling of nanomaterials with imaging purposes, and provides illustrative examples of potential applications of the labelled species. Finally, the use of nanomaterials in radiotherapy, stable isotopic labeling strategies, and operational health and safety aspects related with the manipulation of NPs in radioactive facilities are discussed. This book will appeal to anyone involved in nanotechnology, molecular imaging, radiochemistry, and nanomedicine.

Jordi Llop Roig received his PhD from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at Institut Quimic de Sarria (Ramon Llull University, Spain) in 2002. After postdoc stays at Clinica Universidad de Navarra (2002) and Uppsala University PET Centre (2002–2003), he worked at IAT-PRBB (Barcelona, Spain) from 2003 to 2007. In 2007, he moved to CIC biomaGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain), where he is principal investigator of the Radiochemistry and Nuclear Imaging group and head of Radiochemistry.

Vanessa Gomez-Vallejo received her PhD from the Department of Organic Chemistry at Institut Quimic de Sarria (Ramon Llull University) in 2010. Between 2005 and 2007, she worked as quality control manager of the Radiopharmaceutical Laboratory at IAT-PRBB. In 2007, she moved to CIC biomaGUNE (San Sebastian, Spain), where she manages the Radiochemistry Platform.

Peter Neil Gibson received his PhD in physics from Trinity College Dublin, with a thesis on the subject of radiation damage in vitreous silica. He is currently a senior scientist at the European Commission's Joint Research Centre at Ispra, Italy, in the Nanobiosciences Unit of the Institute for Health and Consumer Protection. His expertise is in materials science, with extensive experience in X-ray diffraction analysis, nanoparticle characterization, and cyclotron-based nanoparticle radiolabeling.