The spes-isolpharm beamline for the production of medical radionuclides at INFN-LNL

The ISOLPHARM project, headed by the Legnaro National Laboratories of the Italian National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN-LNL), has the aim of developing innovative radiopharmaceuticals based on the radionuclides produced at the SPES Isotope Separation On-Line (ISOL) facility. Regarding the infrastructure, in late 2024 a key milestone of SPES was achieved: the production of the first radioactive ion beam by irradiating a silicon carbide target with an intermediate-energy proton beam. Moreover, the ISOLPHARM implantation station for radionuclide delivery to users, IRIS, is currently being installed online. Since its beginning in 2014, ISOLPHARM has built a broad network of universities, hospitals and research centers. The beta − emitter silver-111, in particular, obtainable using uranium carbide targets, has aroused a great interest in the collaboration as a theranostic candidate for targeted radionuclide therapy; a dedicated experimental campaign performed the first invitro tests and in-vivo imaging in 2024. This contribution will provide an overview on the status of the beamline and on the main results achieved by the preclinical experiments involving silver-111.