The CIC biomaGUNE Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform opens its doors to individuals and companies

Thanks to the Innovation Spaces initiative, promoted by the Spanish Association of Science and Technology Parks (APTE), this type of ‘benchmark’ infrastructure can be brought to the attention of the scientific community, businesses, society in general and public administrations.

Visits can be made, upon registration, on 13 and 14 November in guided tours from 10:00 to 11:30.

Since its creation in 2006 on the Donostia Campus of the Basque Country Technology Park, CIC biomaGUNE has established itself in the scientific system as a benchmark in the field of research into materials with biomedical applications in the pre-clinical stage. With a top-level research team and state-of-the-art facilities, its Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform stands out and has been included in the Spanish government’s map of Unique Scientific and Technical Facilities (ICTS).

For the second consecutive year, thanks to the initiative of APTE and the collaboration of CIC biomaGUNE, on 13 and 14 November from 10:00 to 11:30, upon registration, any person or entity may visit the Molecular and Functional Imaging Platform, a leading facility in Europe in the field of pre-clinical molecular and functional imaging. This facility constitutes, due to 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, which has AAALAC international quality accreditation, the largest biomedical imaging technology platform created to date, not only in the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country but also in Spain, and is primarily focused on the development of new applications for nanomaterials in biomedicine.

The imaging unit allows in vivo testing of nanomaterials. Within a few metres of each other are 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 for radiochemical, X-ray and magnetic resonance tomography. This combination of techniques enables in vivo studies to be carried out and is 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.

Over the course of its seventeen years of existence, CIC biomaGUNE has established itself as a leading centre on the national and international scientific scene as a generator of knowledge in the field of biomaterials, which translates into scientific publications, patents, collaborations with international entities and institutions, and the provision of its technological equipment and scientific personnel to the scientific community and the business sector.