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A 2017 proof-of-concept study automated a one-pot aluminium-fluoride-18 ([18F]AlF) radiolabelling method on two synthesis platforms, producing radioconjugates with greater than 98% radiochemical purity in 26–35 minutes. It is a method-development step toward clinical translatability—not evidence that the tracers were administered to patients, approved, or adopted in routine care.
What the researchers automated
L. Allott, C. Da Pieve, D. R. Turton, and Graham Smith reported the procedure in Reaction Chemistry & Engineering in 2017. Their one-pot method attaches fluorine-18 through an aluminium fluoride complex and avoids the [18F]fluoride drying step described in the paper. The team applied it to three precursors: one small molecule and two peptides.
The work was performed on a GE TRACERlab FX_FN and a Trasis AllInOne (AIO). Both platforms produced radioconjugates with greater than 98% radiochemical purity in 26–35 minutes, using a single rapid purification step, according to the paper’s abstract. These figures describe the study’s reported results, not a guarantee for other tracers, settings, or production runs. Read the Royal Society of Chemistry paper.
How the two platforms compared
The authors compared the systems on [18F]fluoride incorporation, radiochemical yield, effective specific activity, radiochemical purity, synthesis time, and purification workflow. In this experiment, the Trasis AIO showed improved [18F]fluoride incorporation and generally higher radiochemical yield and effective specific activity than the GE system. The reported comparison does not establish that Trasis is universally better, nor does it provide a current product-specification or purchasing comparison.
#1 Best Overall
- Adapted for Chemistry, Radiochemistry and Radiation Metrology.
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Why automation could matter
Automating radiolabelling was presented as a possible way to make radiopharmaceutical production more reproducible and standardized. Contemporary coverage also pointed to potential benefits such as improved batch reporting and record keeping, and reduced contamination risk. These are rationales and prospective implications of automation, not outcomes demonstrated by the study in patients or across clinical production sites.
Automated production could, in principle, support distribution to satellite PET centres, but that was described as a future application. The study’s practical contribution was showing that this [18F]AlF procedure could be automated on two named platforms and applied to the three tested precursors. Chemistry World’s 2017 coverage framed the result as a step toward the clinic.
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What “closer to the clinic” does—and does not—mean
Here, “closer” describes translational progress: a radiolabelling method was automated with clinical translatability in mind. The cited sources do not establish that these radiotracers were administered to patients, that they improved diagnosis or treatment, that regulators approved them, or that hospitals routinely adopted the process. Radiochemical purity is a measure of product composition; by itself, it is not evidence of diagnostic accuracy or patient benefit.
Study corresponding author Graham Smith described the work as showing how the process could be automated and providing indicative labelling-efficiency trends for radiochemists to adapt and optimize for a chosen peptide. The Royal Society of Chemistry blog entry published that explanation in February 2017.
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