TRIUMF is pleased to announce that it has joined the Optimization of Medical Accelerators (OMA) consortium, a project that aims to maximize the healthcare benefits of medical accelerator-based therapies and improve healthcare outcomes.
Established and led by the University of Liverpool, the OMA brings together a diverse array of research centres, ion beam treatment facilities, and industry partners to address the challenges in treatment facility design and optimization, numerical simulations for the development of advanced treatment schemes, and in-beam imaging and treatment monitoring. The project provides a wide-ranging training programme comprising schools, workshops, and an annual international conference.
TRIUMF’s Life Sciences Division currently investigates a variety of topics of relevance to OMA, including:
- Isotope production R&D for targeted alpha therapy (TAT) with Ac-225
- Additive manufacturing for beam shaping and organ-shaped phantoms for proton therapy
- Organic and inorganic fibers for proton therapy dosimetry
- Dose verification in proton therapy using prompt gamma measurement
- The use of gold nanoparticles as a radiosensitizing agent for proton therapy
TRIUMF is also currently assessing first steps towards the development of a new, on-site photon FLASH facility. FLASH, a new cancer treatment modality that takes one second or less instead of several minutes over many days, holds great potential to effectively treat cancer while minimizing side effects to the cancer patient.
"TRIUMF perfectly complements the expertise in OMA,” said OMA Coordinator, Professor Carsten Welsch. “This new partnership offers our Fellows exciting opportunities for collaborative research and secondments and allows TRIUMF to join and contribute to our numerous projects and events."
“Joining OMA is a great opportunity for TRIUMF,” said Dr. Cornelia Hoehr, Deputy Associate Lab Director for Life Sciences at TRIUMF. “The network will enable us to collaborate more easily with our European colleagues. I am very much looking forward to closer exchanges of accelerator applications, knowledge, and expertise across the network, with the ultimate goal of improving cancer care.”
You can read more about OMA here.