Finnish Biomedical Imaging Node FiBI has been accepted as a service-providing Node to the pan-European Euro-BioImaging consortium for imaging technologies. The new Node improves the prerequisites for conducting high quality research and increases the researchers’ opportunities for international collaboration.
Euro-BioImaging is European Research Infrastructure Consortium for the top imaging communities in Europe, with 16 member countries and 25 Nodes. Euro-BioImaging offers both academic and industrial researchers open access to cutting-edge imaging technologies in biological and medical sciences. It also offers expertise as well as training and data management services for state of the art research.
The services are in a central role in e.g. brain, cancer, and virus research. Euro-BioImaging has a landmark status in Europe, and its services are used around the world. The host country of Euro-BioImaging is Finland, and its main office is located in Turku.
The newly approved Node FiBI is made up of the most notable bioimaging institutions in Finland, Turku PET Centre, Kuopio Biomedical Imaging Unit located in the University of Eastern Finland, NEUROIMAGING infrastructure of greater Helsinki, and Helsinki In Vivo Animal Imaging Platform of the University of Helsinki.
FiBI stands out from other European imaging centres with its unique portfolio of technologies. FiBi has the broadest selection on PET radiotracers and it is the first Node in Euro-BioImaging also offering an open access to magnetoencephalography neuroimaging technology which maps brain activity by recording magnetic fields.
– Open access to a range of state of the art imaging technologies throughout Europe enables research that would not have been possible before, improves the prerequisites for high-quality research, and increases opportunities for international collaboration between researchers. Above all, being part of Euro-BioImaging gives us an opportunity to be in the frontline of developing the best methods and standards of biomedical imaging which will improve the quality and repeatability of research, making science more reliable, says Director of Turku PET Centre, a joint organisation of the University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and Turku University Hospital, and Head of the Node Professor Juhani Knuuti.
– The pioneering national role of Kuopio in magnetic imaging applications has now been recognised also on the level of European infrastructures. For example, metabolic imaging using hyperpolarised tracers, advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging of the brain, and the PET/MRI in collaboration with Kuopio University Hospital are rare technologies in preclinical imaging even on the European level. Through FiBI, they are now accessible to an even greater number of researchers, explains Director of Kuopio Biomedical Imaging Unit Professor Olli Gröhn.
– Researchers at Aalto University and its predecessor Helsinki University of Technology have pioneered in the MEG imaging technique for decades. Through FiBI, internationally recognised Finnish MEG expertise related to developing methods, state-of-the-art experimental research, and clinical applications will be broadly accessible for European researchers, says Professor at Aalto University Riitta Salmelin from the NEUROIMAGING infrastructure, made up of of BioMag laboratory located at the HUS Helsinki University Hospital and Aalto Neuroimaging unit of the Aalto University.
– Helsinki In Vivo Animal Imaging Platform of the University Helsinki, which belongs to the HiLIFE Helsinki Institute of Life Science research consortium offers imaging services on the three campuses of the University of Helsinki for example for the research on cardiovascular diseases, cancers, and the nervous system. In the FiBI network, our expertise includes optical intravital imaging. Adding it to the portfolio of the Node was judged in our application as a good opening for combining biological and biomedical imaging in a new way, explains Chair of the Platform, Associate Professor Pipsa Saharinen from the University of Helsinki.
Finnish expertise is internationally recognised both in biological and medical imaging. The newly founded Finnish Biomedical Imaging Node is the second Euro-BioImaging node in Finland. Before it, Finnish Advanced Light Microscopy Node has already operated in Turku, Helsinki, and Oulu. It has also been able to upgrade its services recently, as the Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM was accepted as a participant in the operations of the Node.
The two Finnish Euro-BioImaging Nodes have been accepted together on the Roadmap for National Research Infrastructures 2021–2024 of the Academy of Finland.
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More information:
Professor Juhani Knuuti, PET Centre (University of Turku, Åbo Akademi, Turku University Hospital), +358 50 059 2998, jknuuti(at)utu.fi
Professor Olli Gröhn, Kuopio Biomedical Imaging Unit (University of Eastern Finland), +358 50 359 0963, olli.grohn(at)uef.fi
Professor Riitta Salmelin, NEUROIMAGING (Aalto University, University of Helsinki, HUS Helsinki University Hospital), +358 50 344 2745, riitta.salmelin(at)aalto.fi
Associate Professor Pipsa Saharinen, Helsinki In Vivo Animal Imaging Platform (University of Helsinki), +358504486361, pipsa.saharinen(at)helsinki.fi
