The Experimental Imaging Centre (Centro di Imaging Sperimentale - CIS) is composed of 2 Basic Research Units, 5 Clinical Research Units and 4 Core Facilities, for a total of about 70 people.
The CIS will provide the infrastructure and primary support to the research of three Clinical Departments, including the Department of Radiology, the Department of Oncology and the Department of Head and Neck Diseases. Several members of the CIS are Faculty members of the Università Vita – Salute San Raffaele.

Scientific Activity

The CIS scientific activity covers the main areas of biomedical research, including pre-clinical, translational and experimental clinical research. As a unifying trait, our research stem from bioimaging, and is aimed to use a morphological approach to investigate relevant biomedical questions. Bioimaging techniques together with advanced computation analysis are changing the way in which biomedical research as well as diagnosis and therapy of several diseases are undertaken.
Modern bioimaging is based on a combination of techniques and experimental approaches aimed to the in vivo visualization of biological structures and to the study of their functions.
Those technologies capitalize on a variety of biosensors able to detect different energy levels and of methods aimed to transduce that information in images.

The techniques used in Bioimaging are characterized: i. by different resolution and magnifying power; ii. by the possibility of obtaining 3D (in terms of space), and 4D (in terms of space and time) accurate reconstruction of biological events; iii. by the ability of visualizing functional aspects.
The integration of different morphological techniques in a single centre will provide a key strategic opportunity. The combined use of different technological approaches will make possible to cover a wide range of resolution levels, from microscopic to nanoscopic (thus spanning from the observation of events at the cellular, organ and organismic level to the possibility of visualizing single molecules).

Mission

The CIS will develop, or apply, techniques aimed to study integrated functions as well as processes regulating the activities of molecules, cells, or entire organisms.
To that aim, we propose: (i) to develop research in the field of Bioimaging; (ii) to develop research in the biomedical field based on Bioimaging; (iii) to offer techniques and scientific competence of Bioimaging to the biomedical research.
Key to reaching those goals will be the involvement of interdisciplinary competences coming from various scientific fields, including biology, chemistry, physics, informatics and clinical research.

Areas of interest

Bioimaging techniques can be successfully applied to several aspects of biomedical research, including clinical trials, animal experimentation, and analyses of eukaryotic/prokaryotic cellular models. Specific areas of interest for CIS are: neuroscience, oncology, immunology, cell biology, regenerative and reparative medicine, cardiovascular and genetic diseases.