The facilities included in this infrastructure are located at the Carlos III National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC) in Madrid and have been fully operational since 2010.

They are organised into three platforms: Molecular and Functional Imaging, Advanced Imaging and High-Performance Imaging. The Molecular and Functional Imaging Unit provides optical and fluorescence microscopy services and develops new imaging applications to achieve molecular details in large samples such as organs and whole organisms. It also develops special applications such as large-area imaging, cell tracking, shape recognition, multi-colour imaging and 3D and 4D colocalization.

The Advanced Imaging Unit offers five types of state-of-the-art organ imaging technologies: Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), hybrid imaging using micro-computed tomography (CT) fusion and nuclear imaging-positron emission tomography (PET), PET/MRI imaging, ultrasound and optics (2D and 3D fluorescence and luminescence). In addition, it features a dedicated nanotechnology and organic chemistry laboratory that produces multifunctional nanoparticles and a radiochemistry laboratory that supplies radiotracers for the preclinical imaging techniques available at the centre.

The High-Performance Imaging Unit is a fully automated infrastructure offering cutting-edge flow cytometry technology to simultaneously measure multiple optical features of individual particles or cells in a suspension. It also performs high-content screening for drug discovery and functional genomics approaches using siRNA libraries.