News
Microdensitometer to improve cancer treatment Development of a system that improves the accuracy of radiation treatments given to cancer patients is the goal of a recent cooperative research and develop ment agreement (CRADA) between NISTand Photoelectron Corp. (Waltham, MA). NIST is evaluating a prototype micro densitometer that maps radiation fields in two dimensions using a radiochromic dye film that changes from clear to blue upon irradiation. The resulting map gives doctors a better picture of how ra diation is distributed over a tumor. The goal is to destroy the tumor while spar ing the adjacent healthy tissue. The system consists of a microdensi tometer and a charge-coupled device (CCD) camera with the film backlit
using a light-emitting diode. Pixel size can be as small as 27 χ 23 pm, and the number of pixels is 242 χ 375; resolution is 65,534 gray levels. The object demagnification ratio range is 1:1-30:1; the ob ject size range is 7 χ 9 mm - 200 χ 250 mm. The diode operates at 665 nm (near the dye's absorption peak at 650 nm). The entire assembly is 19 χ 19 χ 48 in. and weighs 50 lbs. Several other institutions are also working with NIST to evaluate the new technology. For example, HarvardMassachusetts General Hospital is evaluating the system for proton beam therapy, and the Mayo Clinic is evaluat ing it for megavoltage X-ray treatments with accelerators. It is hoped that the system will give doctors a means to bet ter plan the delivery of radiation and to verify treatment localization as well as ac tual patient dose.
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Jorgenson to receive Golay Award James W. Jorgen son, professor of chemistry at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and Associate Editor for separations for Analytical Chem istry, will receive the 1994 M.J.E. Golay Award in Capillary Chromatography at the 16th International Symposium on Capil lary Chromatography, to be held in Riva del Garde, Italy, in September. Jorgenson is being honored for his contributions to capillary GC and LC, capillary electro phoresis, and hyphenated methods. The award, which consists of a medal, a scroll, and an endowment, is sponsored by Perkin Elmer and honors the late Marcel Golay, inventor of the capillary column. Jorgenson received his B.S. degree in 1974 from Northern Illinois University and his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1979. He joined the faculty of the Univer sity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill in 1979 and was appointed professor in 1987. Jor genson is credited with the critical early work in establishing capillary electro phoresis as a viable microanalytical tech nique. His research interests include highsensitivity single-cell analysis and multi dimensional separations.
Prather receives ASMS research award
Radiation dose profile (top) from radioactive 125l, which gives off 24-32-keV X-rays and 35-keV gamma rays as it decays. Peaks are the relative radiation dose rate maxima of the 125l. Dose map (bottom) was made with radiochromic film scanned by a HeNe laser-scanning microdensitometer. Plots obtained with the system being developed by Photoelectron will be similar.
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Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 66, No. 15, August 1, 1994
Kimberly A Prather, assistant professor of chem istry at the Uni versity of California-Riverside, received the 1994 Research Award for Young Mass Spectrometrists from the American Soci ety for Mass Spectrometry in June. Prather was honored for her work in de veloping methods for detecting and char acterizing fine aerosol particles of environ mental concern using aerosol time-offlight (TOR MS. As part of the award, she received a $25,000 unrestricted research
