World-class research infrastructures

The Neural Microsystems Platform, operated by Foundation Campus Biotech Geneva (FCBG), provides a cutting-edge environment in which novel neurotechnologies, such as flexible electronics or novel neural sensors can be developed.

The neural microsystems platform comprises a 200m² ISO5 to ISO 7 med tech cleanroom, an advanced microscopy area and a laser micromachining facility. The Neural Microsystems Platform, operated by Foundation Campus Biotech Geneva (FCBG), provides a cutting-edge environment in which novel neurotechnologies, such as flexible electronics or novel neural sensors can be developed.

The platform includes state of the art equipment for:

• Photolithography with mask and maskless aligners and semi-automated coater and developer units
• Deposition with co-focal sputtering
• Etching with plasma etcher for thin metal films (Pt, Ti), oxides, silicium, plastics and silicone and microwave and RF strippers
• Advanced microscopy with a Hitachi variable pressure SEM for conductive, non-conductive and biological specimen and conventional Nikon microscopes
• Metrology with an optical and a mechanical profiler
• Laser cutting with a high definition Optec femtosecond laser equipment
• A dedicated area for silicon / PDMS process with appropriate equipment is also available.

Experienced process engineers are on hand to train and support users throughout every step of their project.

The platform develops and provides viral vectors for genetic manipulations, for both research in life sciences and therapeutic applications. The platform can support any approach including gene delivery, gene silencing and gene editing, either in vitro or in vivo. In particular the platform can provide longstanding expertise and guidance for the design of gene therapy related to the central nervous system and sensory organs.

The Preclinical Neuroscience Platform (PNP) is a structural and functional unit to support neuroscience and neurodevice research in rodents run by the Foundation Campus Biotech Geneva (FCBG) and made available to partners, institutional laboratories and selected other entities for research and development purposes.

The platform is actually composed of two entites:

• Wet labs for histology, cell culture and moéecular biology
• Animal experimentation area, which hosts in vivo animal experimentation in dedicated rooms, a biosafety level 2 (P2) area, surgery rooms and animal core facilities.

The mission of the PNP is to provide facilities, logistics and high-level support for neuroscience and neuroengineering research, using animals for behavioral and neuroscientific studies requiring training and/or repeated measures in a living rodent and rabbit.

Our researchers benefit from access to the Swiss Non-Human Primates Competence Center for Research (SPCCR), for validation of the neurotechnological innovations before application to humans. 

The Preclinical Neuroscience Platform (PNP) is a structural and functional unit to support neuroscience and neurodevice research in rodents run by the Foundation Campus Biotech Geneva (FCBG) and made available to partners, institutional laboratories and selected other entities for research and development purposes.

The Human Neuroscience Platform (HNP) of the Campus Biotech in Geneva provides advanced equipment and technical support to read out signals from the human nervous system and perturb its circuits, as well as a set of tools to measure behavior in healthy volunteers or patients.

The HNP includes various resources with cutting edge technologies in the fields of neuroimaging, electroencephalography, psychophysiology, virtual reality, neuromodulation, robotic and also includes a clinical and sleep research unit. The mission of the HNP is to provide an integrative framework which allows the neuroscience research community to better understand how the normal brain works but also how pathological brain dysregulates. Indeed, neurological and psychiatric disorders are a major public health issue, as they are difficult to treat and affect the daily life of patients and their families.

The Human Neuroscience Platform includes 6 facilities open to all neuroscience researchers:

• MRI facility (3T and 7T)
• EEG-BCI and MEG facility
• Psychophysiology facility
• Virtual Reality facility
• Clinical and Sleep Research Unit
• Neuromodulation facility
• Robotics Haptics Cognetics facility
• Methods & Data facility

The Neuro-X Institute benefits from a tight collaboration with the University of Fribourg (Swiss Non-Human Primates Competence Center for Research), as well as access to world class EPFL research infrastructures located at EPFL main campus in Lausanne, such as: