Medica-Plus: a novel Micromegas detector for high-resolution β imaging for improved pharmacological applications

For many years 3H and 14C labelling of molecules of pharmaceutical interest has been performed to study their in vivo biodistribution on animal tissue sections through β-particles detection. Film autoradiography has progressively been replaced by digital β-imagers capable of high sensitivity, real-time imaging and activity counting for absolute quantification of radioactive compounds in tissue sections. After the discovery of the tumor heterogeneity phenomenon, research efforts for characterizing cell heterogeneity have been at the heart of oncology research, aiming at a better understanding of the causes and progression of the disease. This new perspective has also allowed for cell-targeting drugs, and radically changed both sample sizes and radiotracer activities. In this context, Medica-Plus, a transversal project gathering biologists, microfluidics specialists and detector developers, intends to perform quantification of low dose 3H- or 14C-labelled drugs inside single cells. This article reports preliminary results obtained with a prototype detector measuring tritium-generated signal.