IAMI
overview
The Institute for Advanced Medical Isotopes (IAMI) is a state-of-the-art facility for research into next-generation, life-saving medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals. Located on TRIUMF’s campus, IAMI will significantly increase British Columbia’s and Canada’s capacity for the sustainable and reliable production and distribution of medical isotopes currently critical for Canadian health research and clinical use, including technetium-99m and fluorine-18.
IAMI will also enhance radioisotope and radiopharmaceutical research by bringing together TRIUMF faculty and students with partners from academia, not-for-profits, government, and industry. Similarly, it will synergize the Vancouver region’s diverse nuclear medicine sector, acting as a research hub and centrally managing the production of radioisotopes and radiotracers for commerce and clinical research. It will give TRIUMF, the University of British Columbia (UBC), BC Cancer, and others, efficient access to leading-edge expertise, infrastructure, and oversight of accelerator-based isotope research and applications.
IAMI
research and collaboration
Building on TRIUMF’s 30-years of experience in nuclear medicine and life sciences research, the Institute for Advanced Medical Isotopes (IAMI) will be a major part of TRIUMF’s Life Sciences program for research into next-generation medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals.
IAMI will significantly increase British Columbia’s and Canada’s capacity for the sustainable, reliable production of medical isotopes. These include isotopes for the imaging and diagnosis of cancer and cardiovascular diseases, for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s research and for the development of new, targeted treatments for late-stage cancers.
The 2500 m2 IAMI facility, hosted on the TRIUMF campus, will bring together interdisciplinary TRIUMF faculty and students with partners from academia, not-for-profits, government and industry for research into a diversity of medical isotopes for health research and clinical use.
Similarly, IAMI will be a research hub for the Vancouver region’s diverse nuclear medicine sectors, centrally managing the production of radioisotopes and radiotracers for clinical research and commerce. For example, IAMI will provide UBC’s new Djavad Mowafaghian Center for Brain Health (DMCBH) with currently used and new experimental tracers for the DMCBH’s advanced PET/MR scanner and a pre-clinical PET scanner.
IAMI will also build and extend key commercial collaborations that enhance Canada’s overall medical isotope and radiopharmaceutical research ecosystem and capacity. Mediated by TRIUMF Innovations, TRIUMF’s commercialization arm, this includes collaborations with the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization, The Centre for Drug Research and Development, BWXT Medical, Advanced Cyclotron Systems, and other partners.
IAMI
Facility information
The IAMI facility is comprised of two core components: an integrated series of labs, including a dedicated production facility for BC Cancer’s fluorine-18 program; and a TR-24 medical cyclotron, one of the most technologically advanced commercial cyclotrons in the world.
As part of its integrated laboratory facility, IAMI also includes GMP-certified radiopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity for the development and production of next-generation diagnostic and therapeutic tracers and drugs.