Facilities

Chemistry Laboratory

The Chemistry Laboratory is located on the 8^th floor of the Seay Biochemical Building (NC building).

Having a state-of-the-art setting for organic synthesis, the Lab is equipped with seven chemistry fume hoods, a glove box, an Agilent HPLC (High-Pressure Liquid Chromatography) system, an Amersham FPLC (Fast Protein Liquid Chromatography) system, a BenchTop lyophilizer, a Beckman Coulter UV/VIS spectrophotometer along with auxiliaries such as three Buchi rotavapors, a Branson sonicator, and a high vacuum dry system.

The Laboratory is suitable for almost all types of organic synthesis ranging from air-sensitive reactions to scale-ups.

Radiochemistry Laboratory

The Radiochemistry Laboratory is located on the 3^rd floor of the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building (NE building). The radiochemistry laboratory is equipped with cutting-edge equipment to provide capabilities for radiolabeling of a variety of molecules, ranging from small molecules to peptides, proteins, and nanoparticles. The laboratory holds a GE Tracer Lab FX_FN synthesis module for the automated radiolabeling of compounds, and two lead-shielded hoods for manual radiochemistry processing.

A ⁶⁸Ge/⁶⁸Ga benchtop generator provides capabilities for the production of radiotracers labeled with ⁶⁸Ga almost every 4 hours. The lab also contains a Waters HPLC and a GE FPLC for product purification and quality control.

Other equipment includes Raytest Radio-TLC, a PerkinElmer phosphor imager, and an Agilent 7700X ICP-MS. A Brookhaven NanoBrook Omni particle analyzer, and a DynaPro Titan micro sampler from Wyatt Technology facilitate nanoparticle-based research.

Cell Culture Laboratory

The Cyclotron and Radiochemistry Program has a fully equipped and separated cell-culture facility within the Radiochemistry Research Laboratory with a dedicated Nuaire Labgard biological safety hood. The lab is equipped with two Thermo Scientific Forma Series II incubators, a Beckman Coulter Allegra X-22R centrifuge, a Thermo Scientific Legend Microcentrifuge 21, and a Leica DMi1 microscope with an MC120 Camera. Additionally, the cell culture facility has two nitrogen storage dewars with storage capability for 5,500 vials.

Preclinical Nuclear Imaging Laboratory

Located on the 3^rd floor of the Bill and Rita Clements Advanced Medical Imaging Building (NE building), the preclinical nuclear imaging laboratory has a state-of-the-art Siemens Inveon PET/CT Multimodality System for laboratory animal PET and CT studies on a single integrated gantry. Built on the Siemens Inveon acquisition architecture, the Inveon Multimodality system fully integrates each modality into a common data-acquisition system for automatic transition between modes and seamless coordination of CT and PET data acquisition.

The imaging lab is also equipped with a BioScan NanoSPECT/CT Plus. It is a dual-modality system for imaging mice and rats but can also image small rabbits. The system is capable of imaging a range of isotopes from the low-energy ¹²⁵I to ¹¹¹In, alone or in dual-isotope acquisition mode. It is capable of high-sensitivity submillimeter imaging, dynamic SPECT, and gated cardiac SPECT imaging. An optional integrated animal-handling system is available that provides a pathogen-free imaging environment.

Animal Care, Housing, and Procedures

The Preclinical Nuclear Research Laboratory is a UT Southwestern IACUC-approved satellite-housing research laboratory capable of housing 14 cages of animals (≤ 56 mice) for up to 72 hours at a time for imaging experiments, while the Radiochemistry Research Laboratory has a dedicated isolated space for animal surgery and biodistribution/pharmacological studies. The equipment available to researchers includes Beckman Coulter LS 6500 Multi-Purpose Scintillation Counter, PerkinElmer 2480 Wizard² 3” Automatic Gamma Counter, and a Leica CM 1950 Cryostat. In addition, biological samples may be run for analysis on the Agilent 7700x ICP-MS.

Cyclotron Facility

The 4,000-square-foot Cyclotron and Radiochemistry facility at UT Southwestern was built and equipped with state-of-the-art equipment to meet the research needs of North Texas on Positron Emission Tomography (PET) procedures. The facility is located near both the Rogers PET Center and the preclinical imaging laboratory, allowing the rapid and efficient delivery of radiopharmaceuticals both for clinical and preclinical applications.

The facility consists of several components used in the production of PET isotopes and radiolabeling of compounds ranging from small molecules to proteins and nanoparticles:

Located underground, the GE PETtrace 880 cyclotron is capable of producing both conventional (¹⁸F, ¹¹C, ¹³N, ¹⁵O) as well as unconventional (⁶⁴Cu, ⁸⁹Zr) PET isotopes for preclinical and clinical research. The cyclotron consists of six beam ports with maximum beam current of 130 mA at 16.5 MeV, and capabilities of both proton and deuteron dual beams.
Adjacent to the cyclotron vault, the solid target lab is designed for the synthesis of radiometals, such as ⁶⁴Cu, ⁸⁹Zr, that are used in research of procedures with longer biological half-lives. The laboratory is a equipped with a BBS3 Comecer hot cell, housing a TADEO and an ALCEO Comecer units for the solid target processing and the radiopharmaceuticals production.
The radiochemistry research lab is designed to develop novel radiopharmaceuticals, as well as implement Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) for the research use of the radiotracers. It can also help the translation of the methods and procedures to the clinical laboratory for human use. The laboratory is equipped with a GE Tracer Lab FX_FN Pro and a Tracer Lab FX_FC Pro synthesis modules to enable automated production of the imaging probes.
The clinical production laboratory is designed to meet and exceed the requirements for CGMP production of radiopharmaceutical for human use, following 21 CFR part 212. The clinical lab suit consists of four rooms to allow storage of raw materials, production, and delivery of clinical doses safely and efficiently. The ISO7-certified production laboratory and the ante-room have HEPA-filtered air supplied at a higher pressure than the surrounding rooms to prevent contamination of the space from the surrounding environment. The laboratory is fully equipped with six mini hot cells that house radio-synthesis modules for the synthesis of ¹⁸F- and ¹¹C-labeled radiopharmaceuticals, as well as the formulation of ¹³N-NH₃ and ¹⁵O-H₂ One class ISO5 dispensing cell for dispensing of clinical doses is also available as well as a laminal flow hood for all other aseptic processes.
The quality control (QC) room is fully equipped with all the necessary analytical equipment to ensure that the radiotracers have the required identity and purity to be safely administered to humans. The laboratory houses among others, two Agilent gas chromatography units, one Agilent HPLC, one Agilent QTof LC/MS, as well as smaller equipment such as a Bioscan AR-2000 Radio-TLC, a dose calibrator, etc.