The uses of radiotracers in the life sciences

Radionuclides have been used to follow physical, chemical and biological processes almost from the time of their discovery. Probably the application with the biggest impact has been in the medical field where radionuclides have been incorporated into biologically active molecules and used to diagnose a wide variety of diseases and to treat many disorders. Other uses in the life sciences, in general, are related to using a radioactive isotope as marker for an existing species such as nitrogen-13 in plant studies or copper-67 to track copper catalysts in phytoplankton. This review describes in general terms these uses as well as providing the reader with the background related to the physical properties of radioactive decay, the concepts associated with the production of radionuclides using reactors or accelerators and the fundamentals of imaging radioactivity. The advances in imaging technology in recent years has had a profound impact on the use of radionuclides in positron emission tomography and the coupling of other imaging modalities to provide very precise insights into human disease. The variety of uses for radiotracers in science is almost boundless dependent only upon ones imagination.