Cyceron is an imaging platform where biomedical research has been carried out since 1985, mainly in the field of neuroscience. A Public Interest Group (PIG) placed under the authority of the major national research organisations (CEA, CNRS, INSERM), Cyceron's partners also include the University of Caen Lower Normandy, the Caen Teaching Hospital, the François Baclesse Centre for the Fight against Cancer, the Grand Accélérateur National d’Ions Lourds (GANIL) and the Lower Normandy Region. In the framework of an agreement with the Lower Normandy Regional Hospitalisation Agency (Agence Régionale d’Hospitalisation de Basse-Normandie), Cyceron's imaging facilities are used for the purposes of clinical research, mainly in cancerology.

A unique 6000 m² laboratory complex

Initially created to be one of the first 3 French centres to implement Positron Emission Tomography (PET), the Cyceron platform has since been constantly modernised and extended through support from the State, the Territorial Communities and the European Union (FEDER). In its 6000 m² of buildings, Cyceron hosts a unique complex of laboratories and instruments: a cyclotron and chemistry and radiochemistry laboratories, including a white room for the production of radio-pharmaceutics, molecular and cellular biology laboratories, an animalery and associated physiology installations, two positron cameras, two very high field magnetic resonance imaging devices (3 and 7 Teslas) and an electroencephalographic mapping device. A positron tomograph dedicated to studies in the small animal will be installed in 2007. A team of over 40 engineers and technicians, shared within common departments, is responsible for running and developing this nationally-recognised platform.

CI-NAPS: a neuroscience research centre

In 2007, over 160 researchers, PhD students and technicians housed in the Cyceron buildings, were grouped together into a single research entity, the CI-NAPS Centre for Imaging-Neuroscience and Applications to Pathologies (Centre d’Imagerie-Neurosciences et d’Applications aux Pathologies), a unit structured in 10 research teams, which contribute through their productivity and the quality of their work to Cyceron's international scientific reputation. The research conducted by the CI-NAPS research teams at Cyceron concerns major societal requirements such as the development of knowledge on the normal human brain and its cognitive functions, e.g. language, reasoning, memory, etc., as well as on its disorders during diseases (cerebral ischemia, schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, tumours, etc.). These issues are tackled via a highly multidisciplinary approach and, thanks to the variety of the instruments available, a multi-level methodology: gene, cell; tissue, organ, behaviour.