EMBL through the decades

EMBL was founded in July 1974, when 10 countries signed an intergovernmental treaty to support the establishment of a European life sciences laboratory. Since then, member states have grown to 29, with Serbia as a prospective member state on the horizon. Additionally, Australia is an associate member state. Over the decades, many scientific breakthroughs have been made at EMBL, including two which have been recognised with Nobel Prizes. There have been many new beginnings, advancements, and innovations that have pushed EMBL’s story steadily forward.

1960s and 70s

1960s and 1970s

1962: Leading scientists meet at CERN in Geneva and discuss the possibility of establishing an international laboratory for molecular biology.

1964: EMBO is founded to establish networking activities that enhance interactions between scientists in Europe as well as to establish the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

1973: Delegates of the participating countries sign the final accord in Geneva to establish a European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

1974: On 4 July, EMBL is founded with 10 member states and Sir John Kendrew as first Director General; operations begin in Heidelberg and Hamburg.

1975: Construction of the Heidelberg facility begins. An official agreement is signed to establish an EMBL outstation at the DESY synchrotron ring in Hamburg. EMBL Grenoble site opens.

1978: The construction of EMBL’s Heidelberg campus is completed and an inauguration ceremony is held.

Inauguration guests visited the Laboratory and had the opportunity to meet the different research groups, including seeing EMBL’s scanning transmission electron microscope. From the EMBL Archive, Frieda Glöckner material.

1980s

Bundespräsident Richard von Weizäcker’s visit to EMBL in 1984 with Director General Lennart Philipson. From the EMBL Archive.

1980s

1980s: Development of neutron scattering techniques and instrumentation results in a joint ILL/EMBL neutron diffractometer using an image plate detector.

1980: EMBL Data Library – the first central depository of nucleotide sequence data in the world – is founded.

1982: Lennart Philipson becomes EMBL’s second Director General. EMBL is reorganised into new scientific research and instrumentation units.

1983: EMBL establishes a PhD training programme.

1988: EMBL and collaborators establish EMBnet, the international sequence database network.

1990s

1990s

1990: EMBL Hamburg produces the first online imaging plate scanner for protein crystallography, which is now commercialised and widely used.

1993: Fotis Kafatos is appointed as EMBL’s third Director General. The EMBL Data Library moves to EMBL-EBI.

1994: EMBL’s European Bioinformatics (EMBL-EBI) opens in Hinxton, UK. The European Synchrotron (ESRF) is inaugurated in Grenoble, paving the way for a long-term collaboration with EMBL.

1995: Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Eric Wieschaus are awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for research done at EMBL on genetic control of embryonic development.

1997: EMBL Council grants the right to EMBL to award its own PhD degrees, a pre-requisite for the many ‘Joint PhD degree’ partnerships with universities that exist today.

1999: EMBL Monterotondo site opens, later to be renamed as EMBL Rome. EMBLEM GmbH, EMBL’s technology transfer arm, is established. EMBL introduces a ‘predoc course’ for all first-year PhD students.

Late 1990s: EMBL-EBI sets up the first web servers for data resources in the early days of the internet.

From EMBL-EBI’s opening ceremony 1994 with Princess Anne in attendance.  From the EMBL Archive.

200s

The Human Genome Project and ENCODE website home screens. Credit: Jeff Dowling/EMBL

2000s

2000: EMBL-EBI’ s Ensembl provides genome annotation for the draft human genome in the Human Genome Project.

2001: EMBL’s first institutional partnership programme comes into place: Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU).

2005: Iain Mattaj becomes EMBL’s 4th Director General. EICAT is founded.

2007: EMBL Interdisciplinary Postdoc (EIPOD) programme begins, aimed at fostering interdisciplinary research projects between research groups. The European Commission has continuously co-funded the EIPOD programme since 2009.

2008: EMBL assembles a group of scientists from around the world to start the Human Microbiome Consortium. Jose Marquez and Florent Cipriani, scientists at EMBL Grenoble, develop CrystalDirect technology and the web-based Crystallographic Information Management System (CRIMS) software.

2009:  World’s first remote SAXS experiment is conducted at EMBL Hamburg. EMBL launches its Fellows’ Career Services.

2010s

2010s

2010: EMBL’s Advanced Training Centre opens, launching its Courses and Conferences office.

2011: EMBL@PETRAIII beamline collects its first data.

2012: GSK acquires EMBL spin-off Cellzome, which is located at Heidelberg site. 

2013: EMBL catalyses the formation of ELIXIR, a pan-European initiative that coordinates and develops life science resources across Europe.

2014: EMBL-EBI, the Wellcome Sanger Institute, and GSK build the open innovation partnership Open Targets that would focus on drug target identification, prioritisation, and validation.

2015: Landmark discoveries published on understanding ocean biology on a planetary scale, carried out by EMBL in collaboration with Tara Oceans. Luxendo, a light-sheet fluorescence microscopy instruments manufacturer, is founded as EMBL spin-off; it is later acquired by Bruker.

2017: EMBL Barcelona site opens. Jacques Dubochet is awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for developing cryo-electron microscopy, work done during his time at EMBL.

2018: EMBL Rome researchers show for the first time that microglia can prune and modify neuronal synapses.

2019: Initiated by EMBL, Euro-BioImaging is established as a European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC). ALPX is founded as an EMBL spin-off company, providing automated protein crystallography services based on EMBL’s proprietary CrystalDirect® technology and the online platform CRIMS.

From 2018, EMBL beamline p14, Michele Cianci, at the experimental hutch, PETRA III. Credit: Udo Ringeisen/EMBL

2020s

EMBL’s scientific programme will expand EMBL’s scope to study the molecular basis of life in the context of changing environments, transforming our understanding of life on earth. Credit: EMBL

2020s

2020: During the COVID pandemic, EMBL Hamburg shares services with BioNTech during its mRNA vaccine development, and EMBL-EBI launches its COVID-19 data portal to ensure rapid access to the newest information for scientists, public health experts, and healthcare professionals.

2021: EMBL opens state-of-the-art Imaging Centre in Heidelberg. DeepMind and EMBL release the most complete database of AI-predicted 3D structures of human proteins – the AlphaFold database. The first cohort of ARISE fellows arrives, participating in EMBL’s new career accelerator for research infrastructure scientists, co-funded by the European Commission.

2022: EMBL’s Molecules to Ecosystems scientific programme commences.

2023: EMBL launches Traversing European Coastlines (TREC) expedition as part of its planetary biology transversal theme. EMBL Barcelona researchers established a stem cell “zoo” approach to study species-specific developmental timing. EMBL officially opens the World of Molecular Biology exhibit in Heidelberg.

Edit