BIOMEDICAL ACCELERATOR MASS SPECTROMETER FOR C14 AND H3

该计划的目标是开发一种专用的、紧凑的加速器 超低能谱(AMS)测量系统 标记的生物样品中碳-14和氚的数量。这个 仪器的灵敏度至少高出1000倍 常用的液体闪烁衰变计数器和Will 为样本大小的量化提供高测量精度 一直到阿托莫尔水平。AMS的一种新方法将允许 加速器能量将降低约三倍 与现有的加速器质谱仪相比。这将极大地 降低系统规模、成本和复杂性，并使 实验室规模生物医学AMS仪器的研制。这个 这种低能耗方法的可行性在第一阶段中得到了论证。 实验表明，使用1 MV串联的AMS系统 加速器将使14C在浓度上得到明确的检测 降到当代样本中自然产生的水平。在第二阶段， 我们建议构建和测试一个针对以下方面进行优化的低能量AMS系统 标记生物样品中~(14)C和~3H的检测。这台仪器 将使用紧凑型1 mV串列加速器，并将被设计为 与标准气相色谱仪接口。 建议的商业应用：研究癌症发生的研究人员， 新陈代谢和药物效应将大大受益于一种超敏感 有机样品中14C和氚的定量仪器。 在新药研究中，AMS的敏感性增加将使人类 将使用极少量的放射性示踪剂进行研究。 这一能力可以显著加快新药的测试速度。这个 仪器的成本、大小和操作要求为 与主要研究中心的安装兼容。

The goal of this program is to develop a dedicated, compact accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system for the measurement of ultra-low quantities of carbon-14 and tritium in labeled biological samples. The instrument will have a sensitivity at least a factor-of-1000 higher than that of commonly-used liquid scintillation decay counters and will provide high measurement accuracy for the quantitation of sample sizes down to the attomole level. A new approach to AMS will allow the accelerator energy to be lowered by approximately a factor-of-three compared with existing accelerator mass spectrometers. This will greatly reduce system size, cost, and complexity and make possible the development of a laboratory-scale biomedical AMS instrument. The feasibility of this low-energy approach was demonstrated in the Phase I experiments which showed that an AMS system using a 1 MV tandem accelerator will allow the unambiguous detection of 14C at concentrations down to naturally occurring levels in contemporary samples. In Phase II, we propose to construct and test a low-energy AMS system optimized for the detection of 14C and 3H in labeled biological samples. The instrument will utilize a compact, 1 MV tandem accelerator and will be designed to interface with a standard gas chromatograph. PROPOSED COMMERCIAL APPLICATION: Researchers studying carcinogenesis, metabolism and drug effects will benefit greatly from an ultra-sensitive instrument for the quantitation of 14C and tritium in organic samples. In new drug research, the increased sensitivity of AMS will allow human studies to be performed using extremely small quantities of radiotracers. This capability could significantly speed the testing of new drugs. The cost, size, and operating requirements of the instrument will be compatible with installation at major research centers.