Strategically developed to bring together top-notch facilities and cutting-edge research, reaching critical mass. The platforms also provide advanced services to academic or private researchers.

• Genotyping: The Genotyping Platform is built around the capabilities in CIC bioGUNE (platform co-ordinator), the University of the Basque Country, and companies, among which a bioinformatics one, and offers the most advanced technologies to the international community. This platform has been used, for example, to study the haplotypic diversity of the Basque autochthonous population and compare it with others described by the HapMap consortium (http://www.hapmap.org/). Other projects are studying SNPs association to diseases or genetic involvement in diabetes mellitus type I, multiple esclerosis, NASH, or Alzheimer. The capabilities in Functional Genomics and the study of gene function at a large scale are complemented by a Gene silencing platform based around RNA interference (RNAi), animal models and cell lines.

• Structural Biology: located in CIC bioGUNE, it is a singular facility that includes NMR, protein crystallisation, X-ray and electronic microscopy. The platform allows the study of protein complexes (and other molecules such as RNA and lipids), to observe molecular engines with universal biological functions at work, or be used to improve the stability or other characteristics of commercially interesting enzymes.

• Molecular Imaging: Comprehensive and singular platform, built on SPECT, PET, MRI and fluorescence capabilities and designed for using small animals, it focuses mainly on the development of new imaging techniques for monitoring controlled drug delivery devices, targeted treatments and comparison of diagnosis techniques, among other applications. Located in CIC biomaGUNE, it will become fully operational in 2008.

• Biobank: an institution-wide biological bank that integrates samples from the health system and the UPV/EHU, managed by BIOEF. The biobank is a key asset for biomedical research, as it is complemented by the Basque Blood Service Centre, population databases, well established cohorts and epidemiological studies. The biobank is organised around different types of samples (DNA, tumours, cells and tissues, etc.), and it includes a singular Brain Bank established at the university, one of 8 in Europe and the United States dedicated to research.