EMBL History

Leading Europe’s life sciences since 1974

Founded in 1974, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory was the idea of prominent scientists, with the goal to create a supranational research centre to redress the balance in the strongly US-dominated field of molecular biology.

An EMBL founding father and Nobel laureate Sir John Kendrew served as EMBL’s first Director General until 1982, followed by Lennart Philipson, then Fotis Kafatos in 1993, Iain Mattaj in 2005, and Edith Heard in 2019. Before Anthony Hyman’s mandate (2026 onwards), EMBL was led by Peer Bork and Ewan Birney.

Today, EMBL has six European sites attracting both young investigators and established scientists from all over the world and is known as Europe’s life sciences laboratory and a hub for world-class research, training, and scientific services.

Impacts

Notable EMBL impacts felt far and wide

EMBL stories: past and present

Other important links

EMBL Archive

Historical records from Europe’s life sciences laboratory

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