Each year, EMBL prides itself on its technological offerings to users, and in 2024, this included establishing a new core facility, the Microbial Automation and Culturomics Core Facility. But the year’s highlights go far beyond that.
“It was really interesting to see how different facilities are integrated and coordinated in the Advanced Mobile Lab, and how efficient their on-site service is. I was also impressed by the logistical organisation and the ability of the TREC team to sort and ship samples in real time to complete the analyses at partner institutes. This was an amazing field experience that I could not have had otherwise.”
– Daniele Ancora, Research Fellow (ARISE) at EMBL Rome’s Light Imaging Facility
When EMBL’s Traversing European Coastlines (TREC) researchers wanted to understand coastline ecosystems and organisms better by imaging live animal behaviour, EMBL Heidelberg tech developers created a microscope made to travel – fast in imaging samples, small in size, and giant in resolution. With a European science collaboration, EMBL Hamburg structural biology services provided important expertise to uncover molecular details of how we absorb vitamin B1. Their goal: prevent dangerous hidden B1 deficiencies.
The new core facility’s head discussed its offerings and its future, which will provide access to and training in cutting-edge equipment to expedite work on microbes and microbial communities.
Researchers developed a portable and powerful microscope for use in the field during the TREC expedition. Now available as a service, the microscope is miniature in scale, fast in imaging samples, and giant in resolution.
ARISE fellow Daniele Ancora works in the Light Imaging Facility at EMBL Rome, where he develops new algorithms for optimising image-based omics technologies.
The EMBL IC continued to develop and refine new technologies to meet ever-evolving needs, from supporting crucial research on infectious diseases to driving technological innovation in imaging techniques.
EMBL Hamburg structural biology services provided important expertise to uncover molecular details of how we absorb vitamin B1, paving the way to preventing dangerous hidden B1 deficiencies in patients.
EMBL Grenoble Fellow Nicolas Foos explains the benefits of a new method developed by EMBL and the ESRF – a project he led during his ARISE fellowship.
“The development of AlphaFold simply wouldn’t have been possible without the decades’ worth of organised, annotated public protein structure and function data in the Protein Data Bank in Europe, and UniProt. As with many research methods, what you get out is only as good as the data you put in.”
— Jo McEntyre, Interim Director, EMBL-EBI
The 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry recognised the protein structure predictions made possible through the AlphaFold2 algorithm. EMBL partnered with Google DeepMind to make the predictions freely and openly available to all via the AlphaFold Database – increasing AlphaFold’s impact on the scientific community. EMBL-EBI has since integrated structure predictions into its existing life sciences data infrastructure.Additionally, the EMBL-EBI MGnify microbiome-protein database helped researchers to identify cocktails of enzymes that can reduce food waste by upcycling animal bones and other by-products.
The 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry acknowledged advancements in protein science, in particular, protein structure prediction using an AI algorithm.
Data standards that have been silently driving discovery in the life sciences for decades are now making AI advances possible.
The MGnify microbiome-protein database is helping researchers identify cocktails of enzymes to upcycle animal bones and other by-products.
Researchers explore genetic diversity found in ancient environmental DNA to help modern agricultural practices and address threats from climate change that jeopardise global food security.
The integration enables researchers to easily access AI-generated scores estimating how likely genetic variants are to be pathogenic and explore which protein regions have higher pathogenicity scores.
Addition of data from more diverse populations to the Polygenic Score (PGS) Catalog and a new software tool for PGS calculation could help produce more equitable disease risk predictions.
EMBL experimental services support academic and industry users in Europe and beyond.
EMBL-EBI maintains the world’s most comprehensive range of freely available and up-to-date molecular data resources. Developed in collaboration with scientists worldwide, these open databases, tools, and software can be accessed by anyone around the world.
