Biocant or Biocant Park, is a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

science park A science park (also called a "university research park", "technology park", "technopark", "technopolis", "technopole", or a "science and technology park" TP is defined as being a property-based development that accommodates and fosters ...

entirely devoted to

biotechnology Biotechnology is a multidisciplinary field that involves the integration of natural sciences and Engineering Science, engineering sciences in order to achieve the application of organisms and parts thereof for products and services. Specialists ...

which is headquartered in Cantanhede. It is a venue devoted to advanced life sciences knowledge where technology is developed and applied creating value in business initiatives. It was created and developed through investment and partnerships of the Municipality of Cantanhede, the

Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of Coimbra The Centre for Neuroscience and Cell Biology (CNC) is a nonprofit research institute founded in 1990, aiming to foster research in biomedicine and biotechnology and multidisciplinary graduate teaching at the University of Coimbra. CNC was the fi ...

, the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

proper and the Aveiro University. Among the most noted companies headquartered in this science park is

Crioestaminal Crioestaminal - Saúde e Tecnologia, SA, was founded in 2003, becoming the first umbilical cord blood bank in the Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from th ...

. Biocant-led research on

Quercus suber ''Quercus suber'', commonly called the cork oak, is a medium-sized, evergreen oak tree in the section ''Quercus'' sect. ''Cerris''. It is the primary source of cork for wine bottle stoppers and other uses, such as cork flooring and as the core ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

, was the main theme of a front-page article published in the Portuguese version of the March 2009

National Geographic magazine ''National Geographic'' (formerly ''The National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as ''Nat Geo'') is an American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. The magazine was founded in 1888 as a scholarly journal, nine ...

. In February 2010, Portuguese Prime Minister

José Sócrates José Sócrates Carvalho Pinto de Sousa (born 6 September 1957), commonly known as José Sócrates (), is a Portuguese politician who was the prime minister of Portugal from 12 March 2005 to 21 June 2011. For the second half of 2007, he acted ...

was invited to inaugurate a new building in the biocant, an event which was covered by the national media.José Sócrates classifica Biocant Park como projecto inovador e com ambição

RDP Antena 1 Antena 1 is one of the three national radio channels produced by the Portuguese public broadcasting entity Rádio e Televisão de Portugal, the others being Antena 2 and Antena 3. Antena 1 has a generalist programming policy focusing mai ...

(February 2010)

References

External links

Official website
{{coord, 40.3647682, -8.6041222, display=title, type:landmark_region:PT-06 Cantanhede, Portugal Science parks in Portugal