Event description

The EMBL Insight Lecture 2025 will be presented by Dr. Julia Mahamid, Group Leader at EMBL Heidelberg, on 16 December 2025, 14:00-15:15 CET.

Our cells are filled with countless molecular machines working together to keep us alive. To understand how these machines work, it is essential to have detailed views of their structures. For decades, however, structural biologists have mainly studied these molecules in isolation, outside their natural environment, leaving many questions about how they truly function and interact unanswered. To reveal their real shapes and connections inside cells, scientists now use a technique called cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). By rapidly freezing cells and tissues to preserve them in a near-natural state and imaging them with powerful electron microscopes, cryo-ET allows us to capture breathtaking snapshots of life at almost atomic detail.

In the EMBL Insight Lecture 2025, Dr. Julia Mahamid will introduce this powerful technique and demonstrate how researchers combine cryo-ET with advanced computer algorithms to identify specific molecules within the complex environment of cells. Using a tiny human pathogen as an example, Julia will show how scientists can observe fundamental processes such as protein synthesis, and even see antibiotics binding to their targets and affecting these processes. This approach is truly transforming our understanding of how life works at its most fundamental level, opening an entirely new window into the invisible world inside us.

Q&A session

The lecture will include Question & Answer session and we encourage you and your students to ask questions to the speaker via the “Q&A” text chat function of the Zoom Webinar throughout the event. Those questions will be addressed in the final section of the lecture. On-site attendees will also have the opportunity to ask their questions during this section.

Registration (virtual event)

You may register to attend the virtual event either as individual or as group. To attend the lecture, please register by 9 December 2025 via the Live Streaming Registration Form, indicating whether you register as individual or group. You will be contacted by email within 7 days of registration to confirm your place at the event.

A couple of days before the event you will receive another email from us asking you to complete an event registration with Zoom which will provide you with access details to the event.

Registering a class

If you would like to attend the lecture with your class and will watch the lecture on a single electronic device (i.e. in the classroom), please choose the “group registration” option in the registration form. If you already know that your students will be watching individually from their own electronic devices (e.g. distance learning), please ask each student to fill in the registration form choosing the “individual registration” option.

Are you unsure at the time of registration whether you and your students will be watching the lecture as group or individually from home? In this case, we recommend you register your class as group. A couple of days before the event, we will ask you to complete an event registration with Zoom. At this point you can still decide to convert your group registration to individual registration, asking your students to complete their own event registrations with Zoom, so they receive individual Zoom access links for their personal devices.

Streaming

The lecture will be streamed using the “Zoom Webinar” tool. The access details will be shared with registered participants in the days preceding the event.

To watch the live stream, you will need a computer with sound output and stable internet connection (ideally Ethernet connection, not WiFi). If you watch the lecture in class, you may want to connect your computer to a projector and a sound system to stream the event to the group.

You do not need a Zoom account to participate. You can access the lecture either via the Zoom Client or via your web browser. For best audio and video quality during the event, we recommend to use the client.

Your privacy: please note that participants will join the lecture in “listen-only” mode. Attendees will not be visible to others, and will not be able to interact via audio or camera. The list of attendees is only visible to the organisers, not to other participants.

Registration (On-site attendance)

The EMBL Insight Lecture will take place in the Klaus Tschira Auditorium located at the Advanced Training Centre (ATC) on the EMBL Campus in Heidelberg, Germany, and student groups are invited to join the event on site.

Please note that registration for live attendance of the lecture is only possible for student groups who must be accompanied by teaching personnel. At least one teacher should be present for every 15 students (i.e. a student group of 30 should be accompanied by at least 2 teachers). For information on how to travel to EMBL, please visit the EMBL website.

Preliminary programme

    13:00 – 13:45 Schools arrive at EMBL

    14:00 – 14:15 Welcome by Briony Jackson, Head of SEPE

    14:15 – 15:15 EMBL Insight Lecture by Dr. Julia Mahamid and Q&A

    15:15 – 16:00 Refreshments in the ATC foyer

    16:00 Event ends and schools leave EMBL campus

Registering a class

To attend the lecture, please register your class by 9 December 2025 via the On-site Registration Form. You will be contacted by email within 7 days of registration to inform you about your place at the event. Seats will be offered on a first come first served basis.

Lecture series

More information on the concept behind EMBL Insight Lectures and recordings of previous lectures may be found here.