Taketo Toda
Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science

In these years, nuclear medicine therapy, in which molecules labeled with radioisotope elements (RIs) are administered to irradiate cancer from inside the body, has been attracting much attention. This therapy can be effective against micro metastases of cancer that are difficult to control with local treatment because the RI-labeled molecules are distributed to targets everywhere after injection, thus enabling treatment with a view to curing the cancer completely. The treatment method using an alpha-ray source is called “Targeted Alpha Therapy” and is being actively studied both domestically and internationally. ²¹¹At is being considered for the alpha-ray source. ²¹¹At has various advantages, such as emitting almost exclusively alpha rays during the decay process and having a half-life of 7.2 hours, which shortens the time of high exposure. I am currently working on the synthesis and functional evaluation of innovative new anti-cancer drugs that combine ²¹¹At with cancer targeting molecules. This research is accomplished by mobilizing knowledge not only in organic chemistry, which is my specialty, but also in various other fields such as nuclear medicine and chemical biology. Therefore, I think that the required standard is very high. However, I believe that if I can accomplish this research, I can acquire a wide range of knowledge and skills, and I aim to become researcher who can give back to society these skills.