CERN-MEDICIS: A unique facility for the production of radionuclides for medical research

The MEDICIS facility is a unique facility located at CERN, dedicated to the production of non-conventional radionuclides for research and development in imaging, diagnostics and radiation therapy, and based on offline mass separation. It exploits a classified area for handling of highly radioactive open sources, a dedicated isotope separator beam line, a target irradiation station at the 1.4 GeV Proton Synchroton Booster (PSB) and receives activated targets from external institutes during CERN Long Shut-Downs. After collection, the batch is prepared to be dispatched to a research center. Since its commissioning in December 2017, the facility has provided novel radionuclides such as Ba-128, Tb-155, Sm-153, Tm-165 Ra-224/Pb-212 and Ra-225/Ac-225 with high specific activity, some for the first time, to research institutes part of the collaboration. CERN-MEDICIS has advanced significantly to reach mature processes to translate into clinical application for the most promising radionuclides.