IAMI

Building on TRIUMF’s 30-years of experience in nuclear medicine and life sciences, the Institute for Advanced Medical Isotopes (IAMI) will be a major new part of TRIUMF life sciences program for research into next-generation, life-saving medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals.

The 2500 m² IAMI facility, to be constructed 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.

IAMI will significantly increase British Columbia’s and Canada’s capacity for the sustainable and reliable production and distribution 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.

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 will enhance Canada’s overall medical isotope and radiopharmaceutical research and production infrastructure. 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, General Electric, BWX Technologies, Advanced Cyclotron Systems Inc., IBA, Best Cyclotron, D-Pace, Enigma Pharmaceuticals, and Roche.

The IAMI facility is designed around two core components: a new TR 24 cyclotron and an integrated series of state-of-the-art radiochemistry labs.