University of Missouri breaks ground on two new MURR additions
Olivia Hayes
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
University of Missouri leaders gathered Thursday to announce the groundbreaking for two new additions to the University of Missouri Research Reactor facility.
The UM Board of Curators approved the additions in its April 2024 meeting.
The first addition will include 11,200 square feet and house three production lines for making FDA-approved lutetium-177. The second addition will be 17,900 square feet and provide space for storage and support functions for the API production lines.
Lutetium-177 is an active pharmaceutical ingredient used in cancer-fighting drugs. University officials say these new additions will greatly increase the number of medical doses available for patients around the world.
“The University of Missouri is the only producer of Lutetium-177 in the nation, and we are treating hundreds of thousands of patients per year,” MURR Executive Director Matt Sanford.
Mike Mangano, president of ABK Biomedical a MURR partner, spoke at the ground-breaking ceremony about the impacts already being seen in clinical trials of the drugs being made at the facility.
“Our third patient just had a liver transplant last week and so we have at least three patients that are completely cured of cancer,” Mangano said.
The drugs being made at the MURR facility aren’t just for liver cancer. MURR is the only source in the United States for four medical radioisotopes used to treat more than a dozen types of cancers
“We use it for all kinds of cancers, particularly for our company, bone cancer has been one of those. We’re doing a lot of work now in pancreatic cancer in these areas,” Steve Ellebracht, of IsoTherapeutics, said.
Dale Klein, a former commissioner of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, said the new additions will help define the future of nuclear science.
“Future engineers, radio chemists, medical researchers and regulatory leaders. Every time a student stands at the console of the reactor or works in the labs, they’re taking part in a tradition of excellence that spans decades,” Klein said.
UM System President Mun Choi said that the university projects the new additions will bring thousands of jobs to the region.
“With our current capabilities and facilities we have about 300 people that work at that facility 24/7. So we want to have a facility that is double the size plus combined that with manufacturing jobs that we’re able to attract with clinical studies that can be done,” Choi said. “Manufacturing plants, logistics distribution center, hospitals that have more capabilities for first-of-a-kind clinical trial that will bring in more economic development to this region.”
Choi said the two new additions discussed at Thursday’s ceremony are industry funded and will cost about $50 million. The university expects them to open within the next two years, according to Choi.
The university is also continuing to plan and design of its MURR Next Gen facility on Discovery Parkway in Columbia, securing $40 million to build another radioisotope facility with that development.
“We’re going to have a tour of the of the manufacturing plant in Korea later this year, which will help us help inform how best to make the design of that reactor,” Choi said.
The university plans to have the MURR Next Gen facility finished within the next eight years. Choi explained their biggest roadblock right now is funding the project. The University is in the thick of raising the funds for the $1 billion bill that comes with the build.