Illuminating the body's smallest secrets

Tucked behind the protective lower walls of St. Joseph’s Hospital lies a futuristic workshop of sorts – a place where science, technology and leading-edge medical care converge.

Within a behemoth, 62-ton machine, a swirling vortex of powerful magnetic fields and electric pulses is creating bursts of radioactive isotopes – tiny, potent sparks of life-saving potential. In the hands of technologists, researchers and clinicians, these chemical elements become diagnostic tracers and therapeutic agents, each particle revealing secrets of the human body.

The machine is a cyclotron - a type of particle accelerator and the only one of its kind in the region. At Lawson Research Institute’s Cyclotron & PET Radiochemistry Facility, scientists are producing a steady and timely supply of short-lived radioisotopes every day to study, detect and treat disease.    

These radioisotopes become a beacon in positron emission tomography (PET) scans, illuminating the hidden shadows of cancer and other diseases. Others provide a precise map of the intricate pathways of blood flow, biological functions, location of specific cells and proteins, and the body’s skeletal architecture.  

A formidable partner in the fight against disease, “the cyclotron facility is a hub for Southwestern Ontario that is uncovering the possibilities for improving patient care in numerous ways,” says Michael Kovacs, PhD, Lead, Lawson’s Cyclotron & PET Radiochemistry Facility and Program Lead, Lawson Imaging Research Program.

St. Joseph’s cyclotron supports a wide variety of research projects including imaging applied to oncology, cardiology, neurology, psychiatry, metabolic disease, infectious diseases, bioelectromagnetics and other areas.

“The scope of discoveries already making a difference, and the possibilities within reach, are a source of great pride for Lawson and for London,” adds Frank Prato, PhD Lawson scientist and Chief Medical Physicist at St. Joseph’s.

For Kovacs, Prato, their teams and partners, St. Joseph’s cyclotron is a testament to ingenuity and innovation, a world where every spin and burst of charged particles brings a promise of hope and healing.

Powering innovation

Generous donors to St. Joseph’s Health Care London have made both advanced research and next-level technology a reality. During the past few years, more than $1.1 million in donations funded extensive renovations to the Cyclotron & PET Radiochemistry Facility, making it possible to increase production of isotopes and expand life-saving care.  

Recently, $1 million in donations supported a new PET/CT – the heart of the Canada’s first national GE centre of excellence in molecular imaging and theranostics being developed at St. Joseph’s Hospital.