CIC biomaGUNE’s Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform, a benchmark in the field of materials research with biomedical applications

Thanks to the Innovation Spaces initiative, promoted by the Association of Science and Technology Parks of Spain (APTE), this type of ‘benchmark’ infrastructures can be made known to the scientific community, companies, civil society and public administrations.

CIC biomaGUNE , since its creation on the Donostia Campus of the Euskadi Technology Park in 2006, has consolidated its position in the science system as a reference in the field of research into materials with biomedical applications in the pre-clinical stage. With a top-level research group and cutting-edge facilities, its Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform stands out and has been included in the Spanish government’s map of Singular Scientific and Technical Facilities (ICTS).

The Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform is a benchmark facility in Europe in the field of preclinical molecular and functional imaging. This facility constitutes, by the sum of its experimental techniques – Radiochemistry, Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT), Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Optical Tomography (OT) – as well as the animal facility with the AAALAC international quality accreditation, The imaging unit is the largest biomedical imaging technology platform that has been created to date, not only in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country but also in Spain, and is fundamentally oriented towards the development of new applications of nanomaterials in biomedicine.

The imaging unit allows nanomaterials to be tested in vivo. The animal facility, the cyclotron that allows the creation of radioactive isotopes, the reactors to transfer these isotopes to the molecules or nanoparticles to be studied and the equipment to perform tomography based on radiochemistry, X-rays and magnetic resonance are integrated within a few metres of each other. This is a combination of techniques that allow in vivo studies to be carried out and which are directly integrated into the centre where the materials to be studied are produced.

CIC biomaGUNE carries out cutting-edge research at the interface between chemistry, biology and physics with a special focus on the study of the properties of biological nanostructures at the molecular scale and their biomedical applications.

In its seventeen years of existence, CIC biomaGUNE has established itself as a leading centre on the national and international scientific scene as a knowledge-generating agent in the area of biomaterials, which translates into scientific publications, patents, collaborations with international organisations and institutions, and the availability of its technological equipment and scientific staff at the service of the scientific community and the business community.

For more information about this platform, please visit:

Web Molecular Imaging Facility | CIC biomaGUNE

Video Corporate Video | CIC biomaGUNE

This innovation infrastructure and living labs, together with others located in the science and technology parks associated to APTE, is part of the APTE Innovation Spaces project, which aims to make these spaces located in the member parks of the association known to research personnel, companies, civil society and public administration.