Radiopharmaceutical Chemistry

Program Resources

The University of Missouri (MU) offers an outstanding, comprehensive, cohesive graduate education in radiochemistry, nuclear imaging and radiopharmaceutical chemistry along with complementary learning and experience through internships at the National Cancer Institute and Brookhaven National Laboratory. Two tracks are offered—organic and inorganic—and the primary and secondary internships will be based on which track is followed.

The MU campus has rich interdisciplinary research and education programs and resources, among them:

• multiple collaborating departments in the College of Arts and Science, College of Engineering, School of Medicine and College of Veterinary Medicine with cross-cutting programs to advance nuclear science knowledge and technology. Many of the faculty in these and other centers form the Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Institute (RSI) at MU. The College of Veterinary Medicine has a veterinary hospital and programs in comparative and translational research.
• the nation’s most powerful university research reactor, the MU Research Reactor (MURR) Center, with an in-house scientific staff that brings decades of collaborative experience in medical applications, including developing radiopharmaceutical agents and drugs. Facilities include a 10 megawatt reactor routinely producing neutron-rich radioisotopes, a 16 MeV cyclotron for generating proton-rich isotopes and labs equipped with glove boxes, hot cells and clean room facilities.
• an NCI funded In Vivo Radiopharmacology/Imaging Center housed in the neighboring Harry S. Truman Memorial Veterans Administration Hospital along with well-equipped laboratory spaces to accommodate in vitro cell binding studies and in vivo animal studies
• a Biotechnology Core for carrying out genetic combinatorial work and chemical peptide synthesis
• a Bioconjugation Core for synthesizing a variety of bifunctional chelating agents and generating radiolabeled conjugates
• a Human Tumor Bank Core providing human tumor specimens and accompanying clinical and histopathology information to allow determining the level of expression of the promising markers/targets on cancer cells and frequency of expression relative to specific cancers

• three cyclotrons for radioisotope production
• a Radiotracer Laboratory Complex fully equipped for radiotracer synthesis (including GMP lab, hot cells, automated/remote synthesis devices, and facilities for purification and analysis)
• a PET Imaging Laboratory electronically tied into additional laboratories in the Chemistry and Medical Departments for on-line analysis of the plasma samples
• a High-Field MRI Laboratory outfitted for whole body, actively-shielded, echo-planar capable gradients
• a Clinical Research Center for supporting translational research in novel radiotracer development

• a dedicated radiochemistry lab for processing cyclotron targets, purifying radionuclides and radiolabeled proteins, peptides and small molecules, creating and operating radionuclide generators, and performing radiochemical serum stability measurements
• organic/inorganic chemistry synthesis laboratories and access to perform NMR and MS analytical measurements through the Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry (NIDDK)
• biological laboratories for cell culture and related in vitro experimentation
• a high energy radiation chemistry lab with hot cell to accommodate work with high energy or high activity radionuclides and facilities for remote manipulation of isotopes, radiolabeling of proteins and purification of radiolabeled conjugates.