We are pleased to announce that several of our esteemed researchers at the Gordon Center will be presenting their work and showcasing posters at the upcoming SNMMI Annual meeting. Take a look at the list of presentations below: Junfeng Wang Oral presentation SuFEx click chemistry enabled mild [18F]trifluoromethylation of aryl iodide for PET imagingSession Title: […]
List of Gordon Center SNMMI Annual Meeting 2022 presentations
Some of the CMITT lab space is featured in a recently created virtual tour of the Bulfinch Building, celebrating 200 years of patient care at MGH. We are located in the basement, and if you click on the 6th highlight, you can start exploring from one of our laboratories
The BRAIN Initiative will be holding two virtual workshops in February 18-19 and March 9-11 to review and assess current projects and future opportunities to develop and disseminate technologies for non-invasive imaging of human brain function. Several Gordon Center Faculty members will be contributing to the workshop through presentations, moderation, and panel discussions.
Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology course “medical imaging sciences and applications” for Fall 2020 starts September 1st. See the course page for details This course covers the biophysical, biomedical, mathematical and instrumentation basics of positron emission tomography (PET), x-ray and computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), single photon emission tomography (SPECT), optical imaging and […]
In response to a shortage of hand sanitizer, pharmacists and chemists from the Gordon Center for Medical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital have converted our PET production lab into a facility to produce pump bottles of hand sanitizer.
The group delivered its first batch, 19 bottles, of the ethanol-based product to Mass General’s Environmental Services Department last week. With a projected total production of 4,000 bottles, they hope to create enough sanitizer to meet the hospital’s demand for the next two weeks, says Daniel Yokell, PharmD, associate director of Radiopharmacy and Regulatory Affairs in the Gordon Center in the Department of Radiology.
“I heard about the shortage, and I thought, we have all the infrastructure, the people and the bandwidth to produce this product,” says Yokell.
The 10-member team—which worked closely with staff in materials management, nursing and environmental services—followed the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) policy for “Temporary Compounding of Certain Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizer Products During the Public Health Emergency,” using 80% ethanol, glycerin, hydrogen peroxide and sterile water, to produce their first batch. “It was like we were back in pharmacy school, compounding creams and lotions. It’s just a different use of the materials we have on hand—and our skill sets,” says Yokell.
After clearance by Mass General safety and hospital compliance, the next step was bottling the solution using sterile and safe methods, then bottling the product into hand pump containers.
“This is a great conversion success story, where Dan and his staff used their know-how to make something essential in the fight against COVID-19,” says Georges El Fakhri, PhD, DABR, director of the Gordon Center.
The group is now working on its next production run. With 3,000 bottles and hand pumps scheduled to be delivered this week, Yokell is confident the group can meet Mass General’s demand for hand sanitizer in the short term. “Two weeks ago, demand was 45 bottles a day,” he says. “Our goal is to double that amount and backfill what is needed. We want to produce enough to be sufficient for hand hygiene for the whole hospital.”
James Brink, MD, radiologist-in-chief, says, “I’m so pleased and proud that our radiochemistry team was able to apply their talents so effectively to produce a product that is vital in our fight against COVID-19. They needed to think creatively and retool their operation completely, and they did so in a very thoughtful and efficient way.”
This story was originally published on 03/30/2020 on the Mass General Hospital website. Link to article
Gordon Center Assistant Professor Pedro Brugarolas collaborated with TED-Ed to explain the science behind how doctors use radioactive drugs and PET scans to detect and diagnose diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer.
Fifty years after the installation of the first cyclotron at MGH, the Gordon Center perpetuates the PET imaging research tradition of the hospital with the support of two generations of researchers including some of the earliest pioneers who are still working at our center.