Abstract: The applications of high energy physics are fundamental in modern medicine and deeply influenced its development. In particular, the conception and the realization of specific particle accelerators and detectors determined crucial advances in medical imaging and cancer radiation therapy. Nowadays common medical practices were not even imaginable only a few years ago. Starting from the basic concepts, this talk will focus on the multi-disciplinary research activities on-going at the cyclotron laboratory at the Bern University Hospital (Inselspital). In particular, the research program on the production of novel radioisotopes for medical diagnostics and therapy (theranostics) will be presented together with the development of innovative beam monitoring detectors, including a dosimeter for FLASH radiation therapy. The most recent developments will be discussed by means of examples in cardiology, Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging, and cancer hadrontherapy.

About the speaker: Saverio Braccini is Associate Professor of experimental physics at the Albert Einstein Center for Fundamental Physics (AEC) - Laboratory for High Energy Physics (LHEP) of the University of Bern. He is the head of the cyclotron laboratory in operation at the Bern University Hospital (Inselspital), where he leads the research group on medical applications of particle physics. 

He proposed the realisation of the medical cyclotron laboratory at the Bern University Hospital, an innovative facility for radioisotope production and multi-disciplinary research. He teaches general physics, medical radiation physics, cosmology and radiation protection. He was formerly Technical Director of the Foundation for Oncological Hadrontherapy TERA at CERN in Geneva, where he contributed to the development of innovative accelerators and detectors for the treatment of tumours with hadron beams. In fundamental high energy physics, he contributed to experiments at the Large Electron Positron Collider (LEP) and at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. 

He has over 350 peer reviewed publications, one patent on a rotating linear accelerator for proton therapy and holds several grants (mostly form the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF)). His research group collaborates with national and international research institutions (as CERN, PSI, JRC), as well as industrial partners (as SWAN Isotopen AG in Bern and D-Pace in Canada). He was awarded the IBA Prize 2020 for his research on the medical radioisotope scandium-44.

Born in Arezzo (Italy), he studied physics at the University of Florence (Italy) and holds a PhD from the University of Geneva (Switzerland). He is active in science vulgarization, in history of science and in the diffusion of Italian culture, being vice-president of the Società Dante Alighieri in Bern.