New technological routes for obtaining coated biocompatible procedures by Cold Gas Spray

The Barcino program is a European challenge as it introduces new technologies for obtaining prostheses of biocompatible materials by Cold Gas Spray for the biomedical market.

Currently, such a developed technology as the one incorporated by Barcino is inexistent on the market and the prostheses obtained cause no rejection reactions, are much cheaper, with better features and performance, and last longer than the conventional ones.

The Cold Gas Spray equipment and technology (the only one in Spain) is located in the modular unit in order to benefit from the synergy in the hospital environment. The newly-created entity will be used as a platform for future expansions in the surface engineering technologies and in the development of new prostheses for the biocompatible materials market.

The program to promote innovation in hospitals developed by the Health Department of the Generalitat de Catalunya has contributed decisively to support the project. The Thermal Spray Center at the University of Barcelona, dedicated during the last 20 years to the production of advanced coatings, the Department of Human Anatomy and Embriology at the University of Barcelona, with the completion of the “in vitro" and “in vivo” tests, as well as the support from the Swiss company Alhenia, dedicated to the manufacture and coating of implants, represent the cluster members involved in the project.

Creation of a center of reference that includes the production of all types of radiopharmaceuticals and next-generation hybrid radio detection equipment (PET/CT and PET/MRI Cyclotron)

The PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography) technology is fully integrated into our environment. The current limitations are given by the availability and high cost of the radiopharmaceutical (the "contrast" injected into patients). Currently, the availability of radiopharmaceuticals is limited because of their external production (cyclotron and commercial laboratories). An own production center (cyclotron and associated radiopharmaceutical laboratory) allows a greater availability of more specific radiopharmaceuticals for some tumours, a better use of resources and a reduction in the final cost of exploration in places with a lot of medical activity. Centralization also avoids unnecessary transportation costs for radiopharmaceuticals and its decay during the transport.