Since opening our doors in 2021, the EMBL Imaging Centre (IC) has grown into an international hub for advanced light and electron microscopy, bringing together cutting-edge technologies, imaging expertise and a diverse community of researchers from around the world.

We are now entering an exciting new chapter. Simone Mattei, our Team Leader for Electron Microscopy at the IC and in the Molecular Systems Biology Unit, and Robert Prevedel, Senior Scientist and Group Leader in the Cell Biology and Biophysics Unit, have taken on the roles of Heads of the EMBL IC. Simone has been part of the IC team since its outset, while Robert brings his expertise in advanced microscopy and technology development from his research at EMBL.

Together with the IC team, they will build on the strong foundations established over the past five years and further develop our vision for the future of imaging. We would also like to acknowledge Jan Ellenberg, the Centre’s previous Head, and Christoph Müller, who served as Deputy Head, for their contributions to establishing and shaping the EMBL IC. Jan is now Director of SciLifeLab in Stockholm, Sweden’s national research infrastructure for molecular life sciences and one of the largest of its kind in Europe. The IC has already established close links with SciLifeLab’s imaging experts, and we look forward to building on these relationships and developing many more fruitful collaborations. Meanwhile, Christoph is now an Emeritus Scientist at EMBL. During the Centre’s early development, he helped connect its advanced multi-scale imaging capabilities with transnational access frameworks such as Instruct and iNEXT-Discovery. Jan and Christoph’s leadership and expertise have helped build the strong foundation on which the IC continues to grow.

As we look ahead, we want to strengthen the EMBL IC as a hub for imaging innovation, technology development and interdisciplinary collaboration. Automation, correlative imaging across scales and AI-enabled image analysis will be important parts of this next chapter, helping researchers move more efficiently from complex imaging data to biological insight.

Robert brings extensive expertise in developing innovative microscopy technologies that allow researchers to explore living systems in unprecedented detail. Simone combines cryo-electron tomography with complementary imaging approaches to investigate molecular machines in their cellular context while working on making complex imaging technologies and workflows more accessible.

Together, their complementary expertise will help us further connect technology development, advanced imaging and biological discovery, while strengthening the Centre’s role as a collaborative environment for researchers from academia, industry and other research infrastructures.

For all of us at the EMBL IC, this next chapter is about more than developing new technologies. It is about bringing people, expertise and ideas together. We will continue to work closely with the scientific community, industry and research infrastructures to develop new imaging approaches, translate emerging technologies into robust workflows, and provide researchers with the tools and expertise they need to address ambitious biological questions.

Training and community-building will remain equally important. By sharing knowledge and supporting the next generation of imaging scientists, we hope to ensure that advances in microscopy and image analysis can reach researchers around the world.

We are excited about what lies ahead and look forward to continuing this journey together with our users, collaborators and partners.

Related EMBL News article: https://www.embl.org/news/embl-announcements/new-leadership-at-embl-imaging-centre/