Five new Spanish Nodes join Euro-BioImaging

Euro-BioImaging is expanding! Five new Spanish Nodes were approved by the Euro-BioImaging Board in early January 2024, bringing our official Node count to 41. These five new Nodes, which provided services during Euro-BioImaging’s interim operation, have come onboard following Spain’s membership to Euro-BioImaging ERIC in December 2023. The Spanish Node community is made up of four biological imaging Nodes and one biomedical imaging Node. Learn more about these outstanding new Nodes in the article below. Warm welcome to our Spanish colleagues!

The Spanish Nodes are located in three cities across Spain, including Bilbao, Valencia and Barcelona. Together they offer a wide range of light microscopy services, with ability to image samples from live cells to mesoscopic samples and small animals, including super-resolution nanoscopy. The medical Node provides population imaging services including cloud-based computational services with access to high-performance computer clusters, multi-level storage service and archive.

“We are thrilled and deeply honored to become a part of the European imaging community. Our team is eagerly looking forward to collaborating with esteemed colleagues across the various nodes in Europe. Together, we aim to conduct exceptional scientific research and drive innovation in the field of imaging technologies,” say Artur Escalada, of the Biofisika Institute (CSIC-UPV/EHU) in Bilbao, a representative of the Spanish Nodes, and Iban Ubarretxena, Director of Biofísica Bizkaia Foundation and national coordinator.

Spain’s membership to Euro-BioImaging ERIC has been achieved during the Spanish presidency of the European Union. “It has been a long process,” says Inmaculada Figueroa on behalf of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, Kingdom of Spain. “All the Spanish partners congratulate us for this and are eager to start the year engaged actively in Euro-BioImaging ERIC activities.”

Learn more about the Spanish Nodes below: 

ALM@BIO- Advanced Light Microscopy Node Bilbao Spain

The Bilbao Advanced Light Microscopy Node (ALM@BIO) is a joint initiative of the imaging platforms of the Instituto Biofisika (CSIC, UPV/EHU) and Achucarro Basque Center for Neuroscience, both located in the Science Park of the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU) in the metropolitan area of Bilbao. The Node is focused on quantitative imaging of cellular events such as molecular interactions, biophysical studies such as lipid-mediated protein interactions or lipid-order imaging of model membranes and cells, and the neurobiology of neuron-glia interactions.

BIMCV - Medical Imaging Data Bank - Population Imaging Node Valencia

The Spanish (BIMCV) Medical Imaging Data Bank – Population Imaging Node in Valencia provides a multi-level storage service and access (Vendor Neutral Archive) on specific projects. The Node integrates cloud-based computational services with access to high-performance computer clusters high capacity computational from local and European infrastructures, and provides open access methodologies that will integrate different data types for population imaging and quantitative resources. The Node also develops and provides access to a large database of imaging data and corresponding clinical data records. The aims of this Node are to transform the Medical Imaging Databank into an environment for translational innovation in healthcare interventions and management and to facilitate open translational research with a sufficiently representative sample population. BIMCV gives a clear answer to the creation of an infrastructure for a large population base, with associated data acquisition, the quantitative analysis of standardised data and access to the imaging data.

BLivIN- Barcelona Live and Intravital - Advanced Light Microscopy Node

The Barcelona Live and Intravital - Advanced Light Microscopy Node offers expert support to biomedical projects that require functional live cell and animal imaging. BLivIN provides its expertise on robust and innovative technologies ranging from widefield fluorescence and transmitted optical microscopy to laser confocal microscopy, spinning disc confocal microscopy, non-linear microscopy (2photon excitation, 2PE and second harmonic generation, SHG) and TIRF Microscopy. Additionally, the functional imaging technologies offered by the Node are fully extended by a strong support on image processing, analysis and custom developed solutions. In order to promote the visitor projects' success, BLivIN grants custom planning and support in all the phases of the project execution, from the design of experiments and sample processing to experimental setup and analysis. Also, access to complementary resources will be provided (animal facilities, wet lab, cell culture, non-invasive bioluminescence imaging).

B-Min - Mesoscopic Imaging Node Barcelona

The Spanish B-Min – Mesoscopic Imaging Node in Barcelona provides access to state-of-the-art imaging technologies that span the mesoscopic size range. This includes samples from about half a millimetre up to a couple of centimetres, which may be embryos, embryoids, adult mouse organs, tissue samples, biopsies, plants, and many others. Both fluorescent and non-fluorescent imaging are covered through the use of light-sheet imaging and OPT. The Node is comprised of embryologists, computer scientists, imaging specialists, and engineers from two institutions: IRB and ICFO, which all belong to the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST).

SLN@BCN - Barcelona Super Resolution Light Nanoscopy - Super Resolution Node Barcelona

The Barcelona Super-Resolution Light Nanoscopy Facility (SLN@BCN) is composed of the Advanced Light Microscopy (ALM) unit (at the Centre for Genomic Regulation, CRG) and the Super-resolution Light microscopy and Nanoscopy (SLN) unit (at the Institute of Photonic Sciences, ICFO). The main mission of the SLN@BCN alliance is to provide high-end services in super-resolution techniques to the biological community in the form of open access to most advanced instrumentation, custom-specific training & support, as well as conducting leading research and development into new forms of super-resolution nanoscopy. The SLN@BCN constitutes a powerful multidisciplinary pole with a unique combination of biomedicine, photonics, engineering, computer science, biochemistry and nanotechnology.