The UB incorporates new infrastructures to reinforce its research
The subsidy obtained for the purchase of this equipment amounts to 9,876,006.15 €.
The University of Barcelona, through its Scientific and Technological Centre (CCiTUB), will incorporate, from the second half of the academic year 2022-2023, twelve new unique pieces of equipment that will reinforce the research carried out at the institution. The grant, obtained from the Ministry of Science and Innovation in 2021 for the acquisition of these infrastructures, amounts to 9,876,006.15 euros.
The equipment, some of which is unique in Catalonia and Spain, will enable innovative studies to be carried out that will have a direct application in a wide range of fields, such as biosciences and biomedicine, characterisation of materials, chemistry and food, among others. The scientific results that can be achieved with this equipment will increase the capacity to attract new public and private funding, which will have a direct impact on the local academic and business ecosystem.
"The new equipment will serve researchers in different fields of science. It will strengthen the multidisciplinary nature of UB research and will promote the CCiTUB as a reference centre in the field of research support", says Joan Guàrdia, rector of the UB.
The subsidy obtained for the purchase of this equipment amounts to 9,876,006.15 €.
The University of Barcelona, through its Scientific and Technological Centre (CCiTUB), will incorporate, from the second half of the academic year 2022-2023, twelve new unique pieces of equipment that will reinforce the research carried out at the institution. The grant, obtained from the Ministry of Science and Innovation in 2021 for the acquisition of these infrastructures, amounts to 9,876,006.15 euros.
The equipment, some of which is unique in Catalonia and Spain, will enable innovative studies to be carried out that will have a direct application in a wide range of fields, such as biosciences and biomedicine, characterisation of materials, chemistry and food, among others. The scientific results that can be achieved with this equipment will increase the capacity to attract new public and private funding, which will have a direct impact on the local academic and business ecosystem.
"The new equipment will serve researchers in different fields of science. It will strengthen the multidisciplinary nature of UB research and will promote the CCiTUB as a reference centre in the field of research support", says Joan Guàrdia, rector of the UB.
New acquisitions
Among the new acquisitions are the Focused Ion Beam microscope (FIB-SEM), a key tool for advanced correlative research in materials, biosciences and neurosciences. It will work together with the STEM microscope, to be installed in the beginning of 2023.
Also, the CCiTUB will incorporate an integrated preclinical molecular and functional imaging system, unique in Catalonia, which will allow radiological and optical images to be acquired non-invasively and simultaneously in animal models.
Moreover, a photoelectron spectroscopy equipment with a scanning microprobe, unique in Europe, will enable the most complete chemical characterisation of surfaces. It will place Catalonia at the forefront in the field of photoelectron spectroscopy. Other important infrastructures in this call are the MALDI-TOF/TOD imaging platform, which enables the study of the distribution /interaction of compounds, taking the measurements directly on surfaces such as tissues, chromatography plates and new materials for a better characterization in situ, and the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) platform, which will enable the quantification of compounds at very low concentrations and will contribute to the identification of unknown molecules in samples of different origins.
This equipment will be added to those already installed in the first semester: a spectral flow cytometer, unique in Spain; a high-resolution mass spectrometer; and a 400 MHz magnetic resonance spectrometer, in operation for some months now at the Faculty of Pharmacy.
Juan Fran Sangüesa, director of the CCiTUB, says: "We will be able to offer new services that will allow us to promote new cutting-edge lines of research and innovation, and foster collaboration with other groups and companies". The equipment will serve the nearly four hundred public and private institutions that work with the CCiTUB every year.