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In honour of #InternationalDayOfWomenInScience I’ve decided to give a little insight into what my standard day as a radiochemist/cancer researcher studying for my DPhil in Oncology at @OxfordOncology...
Ready? Let’s go!
(Thread)
Ready? Let’s go!
(Thread)
First, for some background, my current research is looking to develop a novel PET radiotracer that can target proteins the DNA damage response in cancer cells. The first step of testing now that we have a way to radio-label our tracer is to look at cellular uptake of our compound
So, on a day of radiolabelling, it all starts with a fluorine-18 delivery to our radiochemistry lab:
Inside the radiochem lab, we have hot cells - basically a giant lead cupboard - which we run our reaction in so that we are protected from harmful radiation 
The tongs on the outside can be used to handle the radioactive material on the inside in a safe way
The tongs on the outside can be used to handle the radioactive material on the inside in a safe way
Inside the hot cell, we have the modular lab. It allows us to automate our radiolabelling reaction without having to handle the harmful radiation. It works by pushing and pulling the reaction with nitrogen and vacuum through changeable valves to different reaction vessels
The modular lab is controlled by an external PC following a sequence which is specified to each individual radiolabelling reaction
When our reaction is finished we move our activity (labelled compound) to a lead castle which keeps us shielded from harmful radiation. Here we carefully prepare our samples for quality control
Quality control is run on our HPLC system to confirm we’ve made the right compound before starting our biological experiments with it
Of course, on top of our regular PPE, throughout our work with radiation we have to monitor the dose we receive, both to our fingers and our bodies, by wearing dosimeters. These are checked periodically to make sure our yearly dose is kept in a safe range
We also monitor the activity around us in real time using dose rate monitors and contamination monitors
Once we’ve confirmed we’ve made our compound and we can go ahead with our biological assay, it’s time to switch labs (and lab coats!) He’s me with my IMS ready to clean everything well for my cell work
For the cell work, we must first get our media warm, ready for our cells. As you might expect, human cells like to be kept at human body temp, we can’t have them getting cold shock!
Then it’s time to check our cells are growing nicely and ready to work with under the microscope
The last step before giving our radiotracer to our cells is to refresh their growth media and add any treatments under investigation (such as inhibitors or external beam radiation therapy)
Then it’s time to move back to the lead castle (this time in yet another different lab) to begin dosing with our radiotracer while keeping ourselves protected. Here’s the wonderful @DoreenLau4 at work with some radiolabelling of her own
And if you’re wondering, the green lab coat in our labs means “watch out, I’m dealing with radiation!”
(Disclaimer: this photo was taken after our work with activity, hence the contamination monitor was off)
(Disclaimer: this photo was taken after our work with activity, hence the contamination monitor was off)
Our last step is to separate our cell media from our cells into tubes so that we can determine the cellular uptake of our radiotracer
To measure this uptake we use a gamma counter, which measures the amount of gamma radiation in our samples (in our case, the gamma radiation resulting from 18F positron annihilation 
). The dose was a little high from our tubes this time, so we added some extra lead shielding
). The dose was a little high from our tubes this time, so we added some extra lead shielding
All these experiments must be done on the same day as the radiolabelling because 18F has a half-life of 109.5 minutes, meaning it has all decayed by the next day and is no longer usable - so we must work quickly, both for the half-life and to keep our dose from the radiation low
And finally, at the end of a long busy day, we must make sure we clean up properly, check for contamination on our equipment, and store any waste activity in lead shielded bins to allow it to decay before disposal
That’s all from me today, hope you enjoyed my thread and have learned something about what it’s like to work with radiation!
And of course, a big shout to all our fantastic #WomenInScience working hard during this difficult time, with major thanks to the wonderful women who inspire me in the @Cornelissen_Lab, @TiffanyGKChan @DoreenLau4 Kathy Chan, Gemma Dias, and Anna Pacelli
