Biomedical Accelerator Mass Spectrometer

We will develop a compact accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) system dedicated to measuring ultra-lquantities of carbon-l4 and tritium in labeled biological samples. The instrument will have a sensitmagnitude higher than that of liquid scintillation decay counters and will allow the measurement ofconcentrations at or below naturally occurring levels in modern samples. The labeling of biologicallcarbon-14 and/or tritium is a powerful and widely used technique for the study of molecular kineticssensitivity afforded by AMS allows the fate of human carcinogens, mutagens and toxins to be studiedat extremely low levels of exposure. Existing AMS systems utilize large, expensive tandem acceleratonot available to biomedical researchers. We will develop an innovative low-energy AMS instrument cominstallation and operation in a biomedical research laboratory. The availability of this instrumentnumber and type of studies which can be conducted using 14C and tritium radiolabels.