In 1998 The University of Milano-Bicocca was funded as a new public University in Milano. The University has 8 Faculties and about 30.000 registered students.

Prof. Paola Ricciardi-Castagnoli joined the Department of Biotechnology and Bioscience in 1999 and set up a functional genomics platform with the financial support of the CARIPLO Foundation. This platform is based on the Affymetrix technology and the Core Lab was co-developed in collaboration with BIOPOLO scrl, a Technology Transfer company. From 2001 to 2004 Biopolo scrl oversaw the activities of the platform, acting as service provider for 50 Italian Laboratories, with substantial support from the Italian Association Against Cancer (AIRC).

On May 4th, 2004 the University of Milano, the University of Milano-Bicocca and the Besta-Institute of Neurology signed the constitution of the Genopolis Consortium, taking over the management of the platform in order to better serve the needs of the research community.