Oak Ridge National Laboratory Resumes W-188/Re-188 Generator Production After 13-Year Gap

Radiochemist Becca Hoerres rebuilt the W-188 column process inside hot cells, drawing on her prior actinium-225 work. The generators elute carrier-free Re-188 with a 17-hour half-life, allowing same-day labeling of perrhenate for NIS uptake studies. ORNL irradiated enriched W-186 in HFIR to produce the 69-day parent isotope, then loaded the first modern generator for National Isotope Development Center distribution.

The revived supply directly supports Vanderbilt’s extension of the 1990s NIS cloning work. Modified NIS constructs now target prostate cells; Re-188 perrhenate transport is quantified by SPECT in Sabbineni’s models. Long parent half-life permits global shipment, cutting foreign dependence for European skin-cancer therapies already using ORNL W-188.

Domestic production strengthens redundancy for emerging Re-188 trials in hepatocellular and neuroendocrine tumors. Generator shelf life of 12–18 months lowers per-dose costs compared with daily cyclotron runs. Next milestones include GMP validation and first human microdosing studies within 24 months.