The iia contributes to meeting on the Adoption of E-beam and X-ray Technologies for Tissue Banking

The iia was invited to contribute to the meeting ‘Adoption of Electron Beam and X-ray Technologies for Tissue Banking’ held at the Institute of Energy and Nuclear Research (IPEN), University of São Paulo, Brazil from October 21-23, 2026. The meeting brought together leaders and specialists from across Latin America to discuss tissue sterilization technologies, opportunities and challenges. Over 150 members of the tissue banking and irradiation communities participated in the meeting from 14 different countries. Members of iia that attended include CNEA Argentina, IONICS, NCEBR Texas A&M, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Steri-Tek and Sterigenics, along with other irradiation service providers and equipment suppliers.

Main topics of discussion were:

• Tissue Banking Research: Radiation fundamentals, tissue processing basics, biological sterilisation, processing capacity and dose optimization.
• Technology Comparison: Evaluating e-beam, X-ray and gamma modalities, constraints, operating costs, throughput, and scalability.
• Accelerator Adoption & Advanced Applications: Decellularization methods, amniotic tissue processing, emerging technologies, computational modelling tools, and dosimetry.
• International & Regional Coordination: Collaboration with international agencies and industry bodies, including IAEA, iia, ORS, and AATB.
• Regulatory & Strategic Considerations: Regulatory frameworks, source selection criteria, and strategic technology transition programmes.
• Capability & Infrastructure Gaps: Addressing short-term and long-term capability gaps, infrastructure requirements, and practical regional knowledge transfer.

Martin Comben of iia chaired the session on ‘Acceleratror Based Technologies’; presented on ‘Global Developments in the Business and Technologies of Radiation Processing’; and moderated a panel discussion ‘Challenges and Opportunities for the Adoption of e-beam and X-ray in South America’.

The meeting was organised by Gustavo Varca (Director of Technology, Steri-Tek, USA) and Mônica Beatriz Mathor (Head of LERMA/CETER, IPEN, Brazil) with the support of IPEN, US NNSA, PNNL and a South American Committee. The iia attendance was funded via PNNL.