Isotope profile
Copper-64
Cu-64 · Copper
Copper-64 is the diagnostic half of the copper theranostic pair: three competing decay branches (positron, electron, and electron capture) that image and treat from a single nuclide over a 12.7-hour half-life.
Public data & model inputs
Beta / positron- Half-life
- 12.7 hours
- Decay mode
- β⁺ / β⁻ / EC
- Charged-particle energy per decay
- 0.124 MeV
- G(H₂O₂) yield
- 0.70
- Clinical use
- PET imaging & radionuclide therapy
The radiolytic profile
Why Cu-64 is hard
Cu-64 is unusual in decaying three ways at once (positron emission, beta-minus emission, and electron capture), which is what makes it a genuine theranostic isotope, imaging and treating from a single nuclide. Because electron capture is the largest single branch, the branch-weighted charged-particle energy per decay is low, and at imaging activity the resulting peroxide burden is modest.
Its 12.7-hour half-life puts it in the sub-day range: the burden builds over hours and then decays away rather than persisting across a shelf life. Cu-64 sits between the fleeting PET sprinters and the multi-day therapeutics: a modest, half-day radiolytic profile driven by a mixed, low-energy emission.
The modeled run
One clinical scenario, uncoated vs DuraRad
The run below models a representative Cu-64 imaging vial across two half-lives: uncoated, then with a DuraRad coating on the same geometry.
Scenario: 148 MBq Cu-64 · 10R/5 mL vial · 25.4 hours window (two half-lives)
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Modeled reduction in cumulative peroxide exposure
98.8%
Not a measure of drug protected
- Uncoated peak (upper bound)
- 2.11 µM
- DuraRad peak [H₂O₂]
- 26.96 nM
- Cumulative exposure (AUC)
- 32.81 µM·h → 0.387 µM·h −98.8% modeled
- Modeled peak reduction
- −98.7% 78x lower peak peroxide
Modeled from measured peroxide clearance in DuraRad vials and literature radiolysis yields. Radioactive validation designed and scheduled for Q4 2026 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Model & validation detail
Pseudo-first-order H₂O₂ clearance, k = 0.107 min⁻¹ (Batch 2, 6R / 3.0 mL). Generation from literature G-values. Performance under continuous irradiation not yet validated.
The DuraRad answer
How DuraRad protects this product
DuraRad lines the vial wall with a sol-gel coating that holds immobilized manganese superoxide dismutase and catalase, anchored to the surface rather than dissolved into the formulation. Radiolysis of water generates reactive oxygen species throughout the dose, in random positions and in every direction, and the coating works as a distributed sink wherever those species reach the wall: the SOD converts superoxide into hydrogen peroxide and oxygen, and the catalase breaks that peroxide down into water and oxygen. Consuming superoxide and peroxide at the wall lowers their steady-state concentration in the vial. Clearing superoxide and peroxide at the wall keeps their concentration low and lowers the oxidative burden on the copper complex.
Cu-64's mixed, low-energy emission across its three decay branches puts a modest peroxide burden on an imaging dose, and its 12.7-hour half-life lets that burden build over hours before decaying away rather than persisting across a shelf life. The immobilized enzymes turn over on a scale of minutes, fast relative to the hours-long buildup, so the wall sink keeps pace and the model holds peroxide well below the uncoated level across the run. The suppression it predicts is large, though less extreme than for the multi-day therapeutics that give the enzymes far longer to act. The Q4 2026 radioactive validation at Washington University in St. Louis is designed to confirm this modeled behavior.
Where it's going
Every Cu-64 dose is headed for a scanner or a treatment room, where arriving intact is the whole point.
Keep exploring
More of the roster
Model Copper-64 against your own dose.
Open the simulator pre-loaded with Cu-64 and adjust activity, vial format, and fill volume, reserve coated vials to test on your own bench, or talk to us about your product.