The Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência (IGC) (Gulbenkian Science Institute) was founded and is supported by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian (FCG) to carry on biomedical research and education. The IGC operates as a "host institution", offering excellent facilities and services to foreign and Portuguese research groups or individual scientists, in particular to young post-doctoral fellows who are expected to develop their projects and form their groups in complete autonomy.
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Location and infrastructure
The IGC is located in the campus of Oeiras, on the Tagus bank, some 20km from Lisbon. The campus includes other basic and applied research institutions in biology, biotechnology and chemistry (the Institute for Chemical and Biological Technology (ITQB) of the New University of Lisbon, the Institute for Experimental Biology and Technology (IBET), and the National Agronomical Station (EAN), of the Ministry for Agriculture) with complementary interests and competences: protein structure and design, synthesis and theory of chemicals with biological interest, molecular microbiology, plant biotechnology, fermentation, downstream processing, etc).
Main research fields
The Institute's scientific interests are focused on the genetic basis of development and evolution of complex systems, privileging organism-centred approaches in experimental models that include plants, yeast, flies and mice, and on the genetics of complex human diseases. A strong theoretical sector (Estudos Avançados de Oeiras, EAO) is one of the Institute's specificities, the others being the quality of the services, and a strong investment on international exchange in the form of graduate courses, workshops and symposia. The IGC offers library and bio-computing services, animal SPF (Specific Pathogen Free) facilities for mice and rats including a "germ-free" unit, a service for production of genetically manipulated animals, high-speed cell sorting, electron and confocal (multiphoton) microscopy, automated DNA sequencing and "genoptyping", GeneChipTM technology, monoclonal antibody preparation, and Biosafety Level 3 laboratory (P3).
