The Equipment of Excellence ArronaxPlus has been just notified to Jacques Barbet, director of the Public Interest Group Arronax, by the Ministry for Higher education and Research with 8M€ of investments. It was selected by a jury of international experts with 35 other national projects among 270 applications filed. Currently, the Arronax cyclotron produces innovating radioactive elements (radioisotopes) intended for medical research. With ArronaxPlus, the Public Interest Group Arronax extends its partnership in translational research known from the production of radioisotopes to the production radioactive drugs for clinical trials and future routine use. These radioactive drugs are the key element for PET imaging (Positron Emission Tomography) and for molecular radiotherapy. PET imaging is mainly used in oncology, cardiology and neurology. Molecular radiotherapy uses antibodies targeted to malignant micro-tumours once labelled with a radioisotope capable of destroying at close range these micro-tumours. Molecular imaging and radiotherapy are the two aspects of Nuclear Medicine, which is practised today by more than 500 specialized physicians in more than 200 Nuclear Medicine units in France.

To the historical partnership with the laboratories Subatech (physical and nuclear chemistry) and CRCNA (Cancer Research Centre of Nantes-Angers), Arronax will associate collaborations with the laboratories Ceisam (Chemistry at the Faculty of Science) and Crip (Research Preclinical Investigation Centre and of the Veterinary School Oniris in Nantes), and with the common Nuclear Medicine Department of the CHU and the Institute of Cancerology of the West (ICO). Thus, several supervising organizations are strongly involved: CNRS, Inserm, the University of Nantes, the Ecole des Mines, the Nantes University Hospital, ICO and Oniris. Thanks to the Regional Council of the Pays de la Loire, these laboratories already started an academic collaboration within the NucSan project (Nuclear for health), which prepared well to the response to the call for projects of the "Investissement d'Avenir" program.

In a spirit of economic development and of search for new industrial opportunities, with Atlanpole and the Atlanpole Biotherapies pole of competitiveness, ArronaxPlus will work on the creation of a radiopharmaceutical industry cluster in the Pays de la Loire, starting from existing local companies (Chelatec, Atlab Pharma, Lemer Pax, Kéosys, AAA) and thanks to the relations established by Arronax, with international companies (AAA, IBA, AL.AT, Draxis, Manhattan Isotopes Technology, ITG, Positron…) and research organizations such as Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA), Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA), the Institute for Nuclear Research of the Russian Academy of Science (Russia), the Institute for TransUranium Elements (Germany), Ithemba Laboratories (South Africa), Legnaro National Laboratories (Italy), the Multidisciplinary Institute Hubert Curien (France), the Institute Laue Langevin (France) and Missouri University Research Reactor (USA).

In the immediate future, ArronaxPlus will structure 6 collaborative technological platforms aiming at producing, in the 8 years which come, not only innovating radioisotopes, but also the radiopharmaceutical drugs for the patients.

The 6 platforms:

high intensity production and purification of innovating radioisotope at Arronax;
development the new radiopharmaceutical drugs for the molecular imaging and radiotherapy with creation on the Arronax site of an extension of the CHU radiopharmacy;
preclinical studies at CRCNA and Oniris and clinical trials with the ICO and the CHU;
development of an entirely new instrument for medical imaging at Subatech;
studies on the effect of radiations on inert and live materials at Arronax: radiolysis with Subatech, radiobiology with CRCNA;
training of specialists with the University of Nantes and the Ecole des Mines.

ArronaxPlus is an ambitious project: it aims at making Nantes and its Area a compelling site at the international level for the innovation in Nuclear Medicine.