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8 April 2024 Artist’s stylised, semi-abstract representation of artificial intelligence

When AI meets biology

Science & Technology A recent EMBO | EMBL conference provided a forum for researchers to share how AI is making a difference in biology and bioinformatics.

2024

science-technology

2 April 2024

DECIPHER v11.25 released

Updates from data resources The latest DECIPHER update, version 11.25, introduces new key features including the integration of functional data from multiplexed assays of variant effect (MAVEs) and much more.

2024

updates-from-data-resources

8 March 2024 MGnify logo with text underneath which reads release

MGnify Genomes mouse gut catalogue v1.0 released

Updates from data resources The MGnify data resource for microbiome data has launched the latest MGnify Genomes catalogue comprising 112,951 genomes derived from mouse gut datasets, represented by 2,847 species-level cluster representative genomes. This catalogue was generated as part of our work with the MRC funded…

2024

updates-from-data-resources

28 February 2024 DECIPHER logo

DECIPHER v11.24 Released

Updates from data resources Version 11.24 of DECIPHER introduces a new ACMG/AMP pathogenicity interface for sequence variant predictions, displays ClinGen Variant Curation Expert Panel recommendations on gene pages, and updates ACMG secondary finding information to v3.2.

2024

updates-from-data-resources

12 February 2024 Female scientist stands in front of white shelves filled with vials of fruit flies

What I’ve learned: Anne Ephrussi

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives After 32 years at EMBL – leading a developmental biology research group and later simultaneously serving as EMBL’s Dean for its PhD programme, Anne Ephrussi has retired, ready to start her life’s next chapter.

2024

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

29 January 2024 InterPro logo

InterPro 98.0 released

Updates from data resources InterPro version 98.0 and InterProScan 5.66-98.0 are now available. InterPro now features hundreds of new methods integrated from partner databases, and InterProScan draws on over 40000 entries. InterPro version 98.0 New features include: InterPro 98.0 covers 81.7% of UniProt Knowledgebase release…

2024

updates-from-data-resources

21 December 2023 On the left: image of a protein complex in a shape of a yellow doughnut with blue elements. Above it is a drawing of nucleic acid with arrows connecting nitrogenous bases to different points in the protein complex. On the right: a line with peaks indicating the peaks recorded in mass spectrometry. Above two peaks, there are smaller depictions of the doughnut-shaped complex, one with a blue element and one without.

RNA to rule them all

Science, Science & Technology The Kosinski Group at EMBL Hamburg collaborated with other groups in Hamburg to reveal critical steps in Lassa virus ribonucleoparticle assembly and recruitment, and the crucial role played by RNA in in the Lassa virus life cycle.

2023

sciencescience-technology

7 December 2023 Against blue and green background are two faux polaroids, one of an older man holding a coffee cup and the other a man in glasses

Navigating success: an EMBL alumni mentorship story

Alumni, Lab Matters A recent success story of the Alumni Mentorship Programme is that of Luis Pedro Coelho, a Portuguese former postdoctoral fellow in the Bork Group, and his mentor Frank Gannon, former EMBO Director and EMBL Group Leader and Senior Scientist.

2023

alumnilab-matters

17 November 2023

TREC – Towards the end of the first phase

Connections, Lab Matters The TREC expedition has come to the end of its first phase. The last superstop of 2023 was hosted by CIIMAR in Porto and, despite the adverse weather conditions, included many scientific and public engagement activities.

2023

connectionslab-matters

16 November 2023

EMBLetc. issue 101 published

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters The newest issue of our online magazine dives deep into a critical research direction in developmental biology, structures of promiscuous proteins, EMBL’s newest service offerings in field research, and much, much more.

2023

embl-announcementslab-matters

16 November 2023

New evidence on retinal function

Science, Science & Technology A new study from the Asari group at EMBL Rome shows a different retinal function in awake mice compared to isolated retinal samples. These new insights could help to develop prosthetic devices that can act as a retina in the future.

2023

sciencescience-technology

15 November 2023 Female scientist

Advocating for a generalist approach to science and life

EMBLetc Sara Fahs, who did her PhD from EMBL Heidelberg and is one of the newest members of the EMBL alumni association board, writes about key insights from her journey in science and her work on medicinal chemistry, during a career spanning academia and industry.

2023

15 November 2023 A truck bearing the TREC mobile services logo and illustration on its side.

Taking science on the road

EMBLetc With the new advanced mobile laboratory, EMBL is taking its service offerings to new heights, bringing cutting-edge life science technologies to the field in a way never seen before.

2023

15 November 2023

Remembering the moment EMBL was established

EMBLetc The EMBL agreement, which made reality the idea of creating a European laboratory for life sciences, was signed in 1973 and ratified in 1974. Fifty years later, we look back at this historic moment.

2023

15 November 2023 Decorative elements on a green background, representing awards.

Awards and honours (Issue 101)

EMBLetc The work and excellence of EMBL researchers have been recognised with multiple awards and honours during the past six months.

2023

15 November 2023

Why time is of the essence in development

EMBLetc EMBL developmental biologists – with help from other disciplines – pursue the significance of time, timing, and transitions in organisms during their development

2023

15 November 2023 Two male scientists in lab coats looking at.a computer screen

Embracing the genome sequencing revolution

EMBLetc EMBL’s Genomics Core Facility provides end-to-end support to researchers across Europe and beyond and stands at the forefront of scientific breakthroughs.

2023

15 November 2023 Illustration showing a doorknob with a lock and many protein-marked keys floating towards it.

The secret of molecular promiscuity

EMBLetc Promiscuity is critical for nourishment. How? This question lies at the focus of research by the Löw Group at EMBL Hamburg. Using structural biology methods, they explore how specialised molecules located in the cell membrane allow cells absorb nutrients from their environment.

2023

14 November 2023 InterPro logo

InterPro 97.0 released

Updates from data resources InterPro version 97.0 and InterProScan 5.64-97.0 are now available. InterPro now features hundreds of new methods integrated from partner databases, and InterProScan draws on over 40000 entries.

2023

updates-from-data-resources

31 October 2023

EMBL’s southern hemisphere connection

Connections, Lab Matters Ian Smith, Chair of EMBL Australia´s Council, chats about the synergies between the organisations, opportunities for collaboration, and ideas for exciting new programmes arising out of a recent visit to EMBL Heidelberg.

2023

connectionslab-matters

28 September 2023 Visual of AlphaFold Protein prediction, embedded into a visual of scientific data

EMBL receives German AI prize

EMBL Announcements, Science EMBL receives the German AI prize awarded for outstanding services to the research and development as well as application and commercialisation of artificial intelligence (AI) in life science research.

2023

embl-announcementsscience

27 September 2023 A female scientist with shoulder-length hair and black shirt listens to a male scientist in burgundy shirt and white beard, seated to the right.

Five decades of EMBL visits

Connections, Lab Matters Structural biologist Shlomo Trachtenberg has made research trips to EMBL from Israel since the late 1970s and reflects on the boost EMBL’s technology provided his research, the ingredients for an ideal research institution, and his ongoing fascination with microscopes.

2023

connectionslab-matters

13 September 2023

Exploring Nexus Island

Lab Matters Learn more about the game-based workshop that lets participants experience what it feels like to be a researcher on the TREC expedition.

2023

lab-matters

6 September 2023 A drawing of swordfish and a bubble containing a drawing of a molecular model. Both on blue background representing water.

Swordfish sword under X-rays: SAXS explained

Science, Science & Technology Learn how scientists use bio-SAXS, an experimental X-ray technique, to study the shape and dynamics of proteins and other biomolecules. SAXS can be even used to analyse the structure of mineral particles in the swordfish sword bone, which can help scientists better understand bone ageing.

2023

sciencescience-technology

22 August 2023 Polaroid style shot of Sergiy Avilov, mentioning the years he was at EMBL

After EMBL: Sergiy Avilov

Alumni, People & Perspectives Ukrainian scientist Sergiy Avilov uses the microscopy skills and scientific network he built at EMBL in his current role heading the Imaging Facility at the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics.

2023

alumnipeople-perspectives

8 August 2023 Clément Blanchet at the EMBL Hamburg’s P12 beamline’s experimental hutch.

Welcome: Clément Blanchet

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Clément Blanchet has been appointed to lead the team working on small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) at EMBL Hamburg. In this interview, he talks his ambitions for the future work of the SAXS Team, his passion for science, and a memorable ‘aha’ moment he had in his early career.

2023

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

7 July 2023 InterPro logo

InterPro 95.0 released

Updates from data resources InterPro version 95.0 and InterProScan 5.63-95.0 are now available! InterPro now features hundreds of new methods integrated from partner databases, and InterProScan draws on over 39000 entries. InterPro version 95.0 – new features include: InterPro 95.0 covers 81.7% of UniProt Knowledgebase…

2023

updates-from-data-resources

4 July 2023 EMBL logo amended to note its upcoming 50th anniversary

Save the date: 4-5 July 2024!

EMBL Announcements, Events EMBL will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2024 with a dynamic scientific symposium. The event will share fundamental research that continues to open the way to scientific discoveries.

2023

embl-announcementsevents

3 July 2023 In the foreground: an intrinsically disordered protein, which has a form of a tangled, unstructured string. In the background: a set of parallel curved lines.

Bringing research on disordered proteins to order

Science, Science & Technology A third of all known proteins are either completely or partially unstructured. EMBL scientists contributed to a new set of guidelines – Minimum Information About a Disorder Experiment (MIADE) – that will help researchers share data on unstructured proteins in a more useful way and will enable…

2023

sciencescience-technology

15 May 2023 Decorative elements on a green background, representing awards.

Awards and honours (Issue 100)

EMBLetc The work and excellence of EMBL researchers have been recognised with multiple awards and honours during the past six months. Here are some of the awardees.

2023

15 May 2023 Science illustration representing research on organoids, organs-on-chip and human health. The image shows an abstract composition of several elements referring to the tools and some areas of research covered at EMBL Barcelona, featured on the cover of the 100th issue of EMBL etc.

Celebrating 100 issues of EMBLetc.

EMBLetc First published in 1999 as a black-and-white printed newsletter for EMBL staff and alumni, EMBLetc. has undergone many transformations in its 24 years of existence.

2023

15 May 2023 A computer showing the EMBLetc. homepage open, with a few EMBLetc. magazines and postcards nearby.

A trip down memory lane

EMBLetc EMBLetc., the online magazine of Europe’s life sciences laboratory, celebrates its 24th birthday with its 100th issue. We took a walk through the past issues of this dynamic publication, and here are 10 recurring themes that emerged.

2023

15 May 2023 Two scientists in a laboratory

Behind the scenes of innovation

EMBLetc EMBL Grenoble technology teams provide a sneak peek into their latest collaborative project in structural biology services: the complete automation of an integral step in X-ray crystallography.

2023

15 May 2023 A section of electron microscopy volume of a Platynereis larvae. Different colours mark different cell groups.

Visualising biology: new tools of the trade

EMBLetc EMBL researchers are pushing the frontiers of big data analysis in biological imaging, allowing scientists to gain a many-layered and multidimensional view of organisms, tissues, and cells in action.

2023

15 May 2023 Researcher holding two sample bags..

In pictures: the story of TREC

EMBLetc EMBL’s newest expedition attempts to answer some of the biggest questions in planetary biology, and will help scientists find solutions to pressing global concerns.

2023

15 May 2023 Male scientist profile image

Merging science and theatre

EMBLetc Veli Vural Uslu, winner of the 2023 John Kendrew award, chats about his journey in science and his adventures in science communication. Uslu is the writer, director, and organiser of various science-themed theatre plays, and the founder of TAP (The Awesome Potatoes) Science Theater Heidelberg.

2023

11 May 2023 An colourful image taken from the World of Molecular Biology exhibition.

The World of Molecular Biology is open 

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters EMBL´s new permanent exhibition ‘The World of Molecular Biology’ in Heidelberg is now open for registration. The exhibition takes the visitor on a journey of scales, from genomes to ecosystems, and introduces key imaging technologies.

2023

embl-announcementslab-matters

10 May 2023 Illustration showing a cute humanoid-shaped robot that spits pink droplets at a sheet.

Time-resolved crystallography for the masses

Science, Science & Technology EMBL Hamburg scientists have contributed to the development of the Spitrobot, a ground-breaking experimental setup that will simplify creating molecular movies. The Spitrobot automates the sample preparation for time-resolved crystallography, which is used to create 3D snapshots of protein…

2023

sciencescience-technology

28 April 2023 two students wear virtual reality headsets

Building a broader European science community

Connections, Lab Matters Croatian scientists and students from the Ruđer Bošković Institute and University of Zagreb visited EMBL to exchange ideas with researchers and public outreach experts on ways to increase interest, awareness, and involvement in science.

2023

connectionslab-matters

28 April 2023 Group photograph of people facing the camera holding certificates.

EMBL celebrates 43 new PhDs

Events, Lab Matters On Friday 21 April 2023, EMBL held a graduation ceremony to celebrate its newest group of PhDs who graduated during the last 12 months. The graduating class comprised 43 fellows representing 17 nationalities and all six EMBL sites.

2023

eventslab-matters

20 April 2023 Photo of a human hand introducing a small element into a machine at the SPC Facility.

EMBL Hamburg joins northern European life science consortium

Connections, Lab Matters EMBL Hamburg partners with the Hanseatic Life Science Research Infrastructure Consortium (HALRIC) to enhance life sciences research in Scandinavia and northern Germany. The consortium builds on the HALOS project to foster collaborations between industry, hospitals, and universities, leveraging…

2023

connectionslab-matters

4 April 2023 A mobile lab on a road, with the TREC logo on the side.

TREC is underway!

EMBL Announcements, Events, Science EMBL’s planetary biology flagship TREC expedition has officially started. The new project applies EMBL's expertise and technologies in molecular and cellular biology to current environmental challenges, and connects with a wide range of research disciplines.

2023

embl-announcementseventsscience

4 April 2023 Title slide for the conference, The organism and its environment

Life in context

Events, Science & Technology Upcoming EMBO/EMBL symposium provides a forum to explore how organisms function together, and how they react or adapt to changes at different molecular levels.

2023

eventsscience-technology

3 April 2023 Two male scientists with safety glasses at EMBL Imaging Centre

Dispensing microscopy expertise

Lab Matters, Science & Technology Home to some of Europe’s most cutting-edge tools in molecular biology, EMBL has long shared its expertise and access to these tools through an extensive repertoire of courses, conferences, seminars, and other training. And now included in this mix is a job shadowing programme at EMBL Imaging…

2023

lab-mattersscience-technology

29 March 2023 Photographs of two male scientists in circular insets against a decorative background

EMBL Alumni Awards Announced for 2023

Alumni Two former EMBL scientists have been recognised for their outstanding contributions to the fields of science communication and multiple sequence alignment research, respectively.

2023

alumni

23 March 2023 Portrait of a person looking at the camera. In the background there are trees and a white building

Welcome: Alejandro Torres-Sánchez

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives The new group leader is setting up the first purely theory-focused research group at EMBL Barcelona. He aims to understand fundamental biological principles using mathematical models and computer simulations, in close collaboration with experimental researchers across EMBL.

2023

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

22 March 2023 Artistic representation that features a long, winding helix joining together a doughnut-figure to a small shaggy ball to indicate the connections long-read sequencing can make about DNA mutations.

The ‘long read’ for cancer

Science Using Oxford Nanopore long-read sequencing, EMBL scientists sequenced a primary childhood brain tumour known as a medulloblastoma, uncovering a novel complex mutation pattern.

2023

science

17 March 2023 Liz Duke standing on the left side of the photo, with EMBL Hamburg's P14 beamline and a big screen on the right.

Molecules to Ecosystems: Liz Duke on X-ray imaging

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Biological X-ray imaging is an emerging technology that uses X-rays to image tissues or even entire organisms. It will play an important role in EMBL Hamburg’s future service portfolio, and will allow studying life on multiple scales. Team Leader Liz Duke discusses her plans to establish X-ray…

2023

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

7 March 2023 Black and white photograph showing a group of scientists standing in frnot of a building.

Tracing the history of women in science at EMBL

Lab Matters On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2023, EMBL archivist Maria Papanikolaou discusses the traces left by the women in science who have passed through EMBL, irrevocably changing the organisation in small and big ways.

2023

lab-matters

7 March 2023 InterPro logo

New releases: InterPro 93.0 and InterProScan 5.61-93.0

Updates from data resources InterPro now features hundreds of new methods integrated from partner databases, and InterProScan draws on over 38,000 entries. InterPro version 93.0 InterPro 93.0 integrates 300 new methods from the CDD (261), PANTHER (12), PROSITE profiles (17), SMART (9), TIGRFAMs (1) databases, and covers 81.7%…

2023

updates-from-data-resources

1 March 2023 Moisés Bueno is standing next to the transfer robot. The robot has a form of a yellow robotic arm on a stand. Behind is the CrystalDirect™ Harvester, which is a white cuboid with two transparent dimmed windows for laser protection.

Biology meets engineering

Lab Matters, Science & Technology Physicists, engineers and robotics experts work together in EMBL Hamburg’s Instrumentation Team to design instruments that support structural biology research. The team has finished a transfer robot that facilitates automated handling of protein crystals with care and precision. This will help…

2023

lab-mattersscience-technology

23 February 2023 Decorative image

New Job Dispatcher website launched

Updates from data resources EMBL-EBI’s Software Development and Operations team is delighted to announce the launch of a brand-new Job Dispatcher website, currently in development.  The updated website provides a landing page for the Job Dispatcher services, making it easier for users to find and navigate services…

2023

updates-from-data-resources

13 February 2023 Female scientist stands in front of lab bench

Welcome: Hanh Vu

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Group Leader Hanh Vu studies ‘immortal’ flatworms that can grow and de-grow to understand better factors that determine organisms’ sizes.

2023

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

7 February 2023 BII and EMBL logos are on a white band set against a wavy green background

Promoting European innovation in the life sciences

Connections, Lab Matters One of EMBL’s core missions is the development and transfer of scientific know-how and technologies to academia, industry, and commercial entities to facilitate further research, innovations, and commercialisation for the benefit of society at large. Working across Europe, EMBL has partnerships…

2023

connectionslab-matters

20 December 2022

First linked dataset on Pathogens Portal

Updates from data resources The first  cohort study linking data across categories was recently added on the Pathogens Portal Cohort Browser and is also accessible from the BioSamples browser. This pilot study comes from Erasmus Medical Centre through the ReCoDID project, one of the COVID-19 Data Platform supporting…

2022

updates-from-data-resources

16 December 2022 Group of around hundred people looking at the camera

EMBL in Spain: from EvoDevo to Tissues

Alumni More than a hundred scientists from across Spain and Europe met at the Andalusian Centre for Developmental Biology (CABD) for the 2022 “EMBL in Spain” event.

2022

alumni

12 December 2022 A mother and her child looking through a microscope

Celebrating science in Grenoble

Connections, Lab Matters In October 2022, EMBL Grenoble participated in the annual science outreach event Parvis des Sciences, organised by the GIANT campus under the umbrella of the French science week – La Fête de la science.

2022

connectionslab-matters

1 December 2022

Getting closer to stopping toxoplasmosis infection

Science Recent studies supported by EMBL Grenoble’s expertise in structural biology research and scientific services have identified Altiratinib as a potential drug to stop toxoplasmosis infection and opened up treatment options against malaria.

2022

science

18 November 2022 Group photo of speakers and organisers standing in front of a slide saying “Welcome to the DANEMO Symposium”.

Promoting EMBL opportunities for the Danish scientific community

Events DANEMO is a communication platform and research support initiative launched by DANDRITE at Aarhus University. It aims to encourage scientists in Denmark to engage with EMBL and EMBO. The DANEMO symposium from 3-4 November in Aarhus focused on raising awareness of the new EMBL programme ‘Molecules…

2022

events

17 November 2022 A graphic showing the logos of EMBL and the University of Malta

EMBL builds on links with Malta

Events EMBL deepens scientific collaboration, opening the door for greater engagement and opportunities for Malta’s life science community

2022

events

16 November 2022 A woman can be seen collecting samples from the shallow ocean, with mountains in the background

From coast to coast and beyond

EMBLetc EMBL researchers conducted a pilot project in Iceland as the final preparatory step before commencing their journey traversing European coastlines.

2022

16 November 2022

The power of a pesticide library

EMBLetc EMBL research groups apply molecular biology and its research tools to better understand agricultural pesticides

2022

16 November 2022 Female scientist photographed against a grey background

From academia to industry and back

EMBLetc Sara A. Courtneidge, recipient of the 2022 Lennart Philipson Award, reflects on the fundamental and translational research aspects of her career in cancer research

2022

16 November 2022 Decorative elements on a green background, representing awards.

Awards & honours

EMBLetc The work and excellence of EMBL researchers have been recognised with multiple awards and honours during the past year.

2022

31 October 2022 Two photos of a cell nucleus with blue, bandage-like objects wrapped around a roundish nucleus. The photos show before and after a parasitic invasion, so few chromosomes remain afterwards.

Plankton zombies for Halloween!

Science Plankton parasites provide a zombie story perfect for Halloween. While invading single-celled plankton, these parasites devour the cell’s nucleus and hijack metabolism while the organism remains alive.

2022

science

21 October 2022 Ensembl logo in white circle on blue and green background

Ensembl 108 has been released

Updates from data resources We are pleased to announce the release of Ensembl 108, and the corresponding release of Ensembl Genomes 55 featuring changes in the human default tracks, new genomes in Ensembl Plants and Ensembl Metazoa, and the addition of mitochondrial annotation for Tasmanian devil. Genome assemblies and…

2022

updates-from-data-resources

12 October 2022 A group photo taken at the EMBL Heidelberg site, showing members of EMBL and the Ruder Boskovic Institute

EMBL deepens ties with Croatia

Events Visit of delegation from the Ruđer Bošković Institute to EMBL Heidelberg marks a new chapter in scientific and institutional cooperation

2022

events

7 October 2022 A group of people at EMBL's partnership conference

The EMBL Connection

Events EMBL's Partnership Conference highlights the value of its networks, bringing researchers together to build new scientific connections.

2022

events

29 September 2022 young girl in lab coat

Tools for teachers

Lab Matters EMBL reminds teachers of freely available educational resources and workshops just in time for school.

2022

lab-matters

20 September 2022 8 representatives of both the Dieter Schwarz Foundation and EMBL are standing in the EMBL Imaging Centre foyer facing the camera

Life Science Alliance starts new chapter

Connections, Lab Matters Dieter Schwarz Foundation renews 3-year funding to EMBL for the EMBL | Stanford Life Science Alliance, a unique international collaboration bringing together researchers from the two leading institutions to develop transformative technologies and accelerate biomedical research.

2022

connectionslab-matters

15 September 2022 The foreground shows two yellow pipes representing the human gastrointestinal tract coming together, representing the confluence of donor and recipient gut ecosystems. Bacteria can be seen as green shapes inside the pipes and various kinds of interactions between them are shown symbolically as a mixing of colours.

When microbiomes collide

Science, Science & Technology EMBL researchers used data from over 300 human faecal microbiota transplants to gain an ecological understanding of what happens when two gut microbiomes clash.

2022

sciencescience-technology

9 September 2022 Monochrome decorative image with the word "statement" on grey background.

In tribute to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

Announcements The United Kingdom is a founding member of EMBL, and has hosted EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute since 1994. We recognise that the passing of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will have a profound impact on the country, and we extend our deepest sympathies to the Royal Family at this…

2022

announcements

9 September 2022 A female career advisor at computer participates in webinar

Insights into scientific careers

Events, Lab Matters As the career landscape continues to change for PhDs and postdocs, the EMBL Fellows’ Career Service offers webinars that present professional options in and beyond academia.

2022

eventslab-matters

7 September 2022 Female scientist stands in laboratory setting

Augmenting science

Lab Matters The Scientific Visitor Programme shares EMBL tools and talent with outside researchers in collaborative, multidisciplinary environments.

2022

lab-matters

4 August 2022 An illustration provides representation of fingers hovering over a cell phone

Zooming in to get the full picture

Science, Science & Technology EMBL and UW researchers plus additional collaborators have constructed a complete map of fruit fly embryonic development using machine learning. This research is foundational to better understanding overall embryo development in other species, including humans.

2022

sciencescience-technology

18 July 2022 Large, elongated purple molecule has an on/off switch on it pointed to on.

The retron switch

Science, Science & Technology EMBL researchers now understand the function of an elusive small DNA in bacteria and have developed a tool that can be used to better understand what might ‘switch on’ bacterial immune defences.

2022

sciencescience-technology

10 June 2022 A colourful structural model of the doughnut-shaped human nuclear pore complex seen from above.

Puzzling out the structure of a molecular giant

Science, Science & Technology Scientists have solved several mysteries around the structure and function of a true molecular giant: the human nuclear pore complex. They created the most complete model of the complex thanks to combining the program AlphaFold2 with cryo-electron tomography, integrative modelling, molecular…

2022

sciencescience-technology

7 June 2022 Female scientist photographed in a garden

Welcome: Pascale Cossart

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Pascale Cossart, one of the world’s foremost authorities on the biology of Listeria, brings four decades of expertise in intracellular bacterial parasitism to EMBL as a visiting scientist.

2022

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

18 May 2022 The visiting group from the Business Academy Aarhus during lunch at the EMBL Hamburg’s terrace

EMBL Hamburg is helping train lab techs of the future

Lab Matters Students from the Business Academy Aarhus visit EMBL Hamburg annually. Many of them return later as trainees to gain experience as lab technicians. EMBL Hamburg offers great opportunities to learn diverse techniques and work with various equipment. This experience helps them in their future jobs in…

2022

lab-matters

6 May 2022 Drawing of two chromosomes in which a highlighted area is switched around.

Flip-flop genome

Science, Science & Technology Researchers at EMBL Heidelberg found that inversions in the human genome are more common than previously thought, which impacts our understanding of certain genetic diseases.

2022

sciencescience-technology

5 May 2022 Colourful vertical panels each show different microscopic images possible with the high-tech tools in EMBL's Imaging Centre

Enabling imaging across scales

EMBL Announcements, Events EMBL’s first Imaging Centre Symposium will occur onsite at EMBL and include tours of the new Imaging Centre on 31 May, introducing participants to the facility and its staff and featuring talks on the rapid developments in imaging technologies that have led to notable biological and medical…

2022

embl-announcementsevents

27 April 2022 Portrait of Kristina Djinović-Carugo

Next Head of EMBL Grenoble appointed

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters Professor Kristina Djinović-Carugo has been appointed as the next head of EMBL Grenoble. She will join EMBL in July from the Max Perutz Laboratories at the University of Vienna, where she is currently Head of the Department of Structural and Computational Biology and full Professor of Structural…

2022

embl-announcementslab-matters

17 March 2022 EMBL statement visual

EMBL’s statement on the invasion of Ukraine

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters EMBL condemns in the strongest terms the unjustified military invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, with the support of Belarus, and the resulting loss of life and human suffering. We express our deepest sympathy to the Ukrainian people and to all the victims of this war.  As an…

2022

embl-announcementslab-matters

4 March 2022 Science art expressing the concept of transcriptional neighbourhoods regulating transcript isoform lengths and expression levels.

Understanding genomes, piece by piece

Science, Science & Technology Genomes are made up of thousands of individual pieces – genes – which are expressed at different levels. Researchers at EMBL have shed light on how the placement of a gene affects its expression, as well as that of its neighbours.

2022

sciencescience-technology

25 February 2022 Three colourful overlapping circles arranged in a row, a fruit-fly embryo being visible within each. Small circles within the embryos represent cell lineages.

Converging lenses on embryo development

Science, Science & Technology Researchers from the Furlong group at EMBL have come up with a way to observe the development of fruit-fly embryos simultaneously at the genetic and cellular levels, generating a high-resolution and integrated view of how different cell lineages form.

2022

sciencescience-technology

24 February 2022 Expression Atlas database logo - A magnifying glass highlighting a yellow section on a blue background

New Expression Atlas release in collaboration with PRIDE

Updates from data resources New Expression Atlas release features differential-proteomics and baseline-proteomics experiments in collaboration with the PRIDE team at EMBL-EBI. This also includes new baseline DIA proteomics experiments as well as new differential proteomics datasets.  To improve reproducibility,…

2022

updates-from-data-resources

23 February 2022 A photo of the campus of the Aarhus University buildings and green lawn.

Molecular medicine across borders

Connections, Lab Matters The 11th annual Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine meeting was hosted in virtual format by DANDRITE, the Danish node of the Partnership, from 31 January–2 February 2022. The programme included updates from all partnership nodes, discussions about opportunities for new collaborations,…

2022

connectionslab-matters

9 February 2022 The logos of EMBL and the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre

EMBL and Latvia deepen collaboration

Connections, Events Agreement signed with Latvia’s Biomedical Research and Study Centre will boost academic exchange and collaboration on some of the largest challenges facing human and planetary health.

2022

connectionsevents

1 February 2022 A photograph of the Amazonian lancehead snake Bothrops atrox

Decoding the secrets of snake venom

Science, Science & Technology EMBL Hamburg’s Grzegorz Chojnowski from the Wilmanns Group developed software called findMySequence, which identifies proteins’ amino-acid sequences based on electron cryo-microscopy and X-ray crystallography data. It’s useful for identifying unknown proteins in samples from natural sources.

2022

sciencescience-technology

21 January 2022 The cross-section of a cell expressing a green fluorescently tagged protein and illuminated by a blue laser is visible in the foreground, surrounded by a vortex of cells

Cell sorting enters a new dimension

Science, Science & Technology EMBL researchers, in collaboration with BD Biosciences, have demonstrated a new technology that allows rapid image-based sorting of cells. The new technology represents a major upgrade to flow cytometry and has applications in diverse life science fields.

2022

sciencescience-technology

3 January 2022 Mixture of life science symbols inside a circle set against background of green and blue

The start of a journey

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives This year marks the beginning of EMBL’s next programme ‘Molecules to Ecosystems’ to advance the understanding of life across scales and in the context of changing environments.

2022

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

22 December 2021 Scientific illustrations of MEG3, a very large RNA involved in cell proliferation. IAB and EMBL logos are located in the center of the illustration.

EMBL-IAB collaboration on the rise

Connections, Lab Matters The memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between EMBL and the Institute for Advanced Biosciences (IAB) a year ago has already catalysed new grants for joint research projects related to cancer and infection biology, thereby deepening collaborative activities.

2021

connectionslab-matters

21 December 2021 A model of the doughnut-shaped nuclear pore complex. Individual molecules are marked in various colours.

Observing the secret life of molecules inside the cell

Science, Science & Technology EMBL Hamburg’s Kosinski Group, the Beck Laboratory at the Max Planck Institute of Biophysics, and colleagues at EMBL Heidelberg recorded the nuclear pore complex contracting in living cells. They visualised the movement with an unprecedented level of detail with help of new software called…

2021

sciencescience-technology

20 December 2021 Concentric circles and lines in different colours, representing fingerprints. Text: "Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Strategy."

Fostering diversity and equality

Lab Matters Showing a continued commitment to providing a diverse and inclusive organisation for conducting leading molecular biology research, EMBL has launched an Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy.

2021

lab-matters

20 December 2021 A detailed structure map shows two proteins interacting in the foreground, each shown in a different colour. The background shows small green dots marking bacteria

Solving molecular puzzles to find the perfect fit

Science, Science & Technology Using cryo-EM and structural biology techniques, EMBL researchers have shown how two proteins of Legionella pneumophila interact. This finding sheds light on a mechanism critical to the infection process and could lead to the development of new drugs to treat pneumonia.

2021

sciencescience-technology

7 December 2021 A cartoon image showing a person's arm and a needle with a vaccine being injected into it. The text on the left reads: "EMBL research: How structural biologists at EMBL Hamburg help to develop and improve RNA vaccines"

How structural biology helps to make RNA vaccines

Science, Science & Technology RNA vaccines, such as the ones for COVID-19, represent a new approach in vaccine technology. Cy Jeffries, faculty staff scientist at EMBL Hamburg, explains the clever technology behind RNA vaccines, and how structural biology contributes to its development. EMBL Hamburg collaborated on several…

2021

sciencescience-technology

29 November 2021 Male scientist in front of blurred woodland background

Welcome: Niccolò Banterle

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Using gene editing and three types of microscopy, one of EMBL’s newest group leaders is deciphering the functions of one of the smallest molecules involved in cell division, motility, and signalling, known as a centriole.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

25 November 2021 Female scientist in front of a background of green plants

Welcome: Maria Zimmermann-Kogadeeva

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Maria Zimmermann-Kogadeeva is one of EMBL’s newest group leaders and a computational biologist whose research group applies computational modelling to better understand the metabolism of gut bacteria and their potential to have far-reaching impacts on other organs.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

9 November 2021 students looking a computer monitor and microscope

New horizons for the EIPP

Lab Matters EMBL's PhD and postdoc programmes evolve to the more multidisciplinary way of doing great molecular biology research.

2021

lab-matters

5 November 2021 A headshot photo of Ken Holmes from July 2021

Ken Holmes

Alumni, People & Perspectives Ken Holmes, outstanding pioneer of structural biology and founder of EMBL´s Hamburg site, died on 2 November 2021 at the age of 87.

2021

alumnipeople-perspectives

5 November 2021 Three-dimensional rendering of sponge neuroid cells (coloured orange) and sponge digestive cells (coloured green).

More than a gut reaction

Science, Science & Technology What can sponges tell us about the evolution of the brain? Sponges have the genes involved in neuronal function in higher animals. But if sponges don’t have brains, what is the role of these? EMBL scientists imaged the sponge digestive chamber to find out.

2021

sciencescience-technology

28 October 2021 female scientist sits in front of building

Welcome: Svetlana Dodonova

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Svetlana Dodonova is one of EMBL's newest group leaders, leading a team of researchers who will study how genetic material is organised inside cells using structural biology approaches.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

25 October 2021 A collage of the visuals representing each of the three modules of the eSPC platform.

Biophysics analysis made easy with an online tool

Science, Science & Technology EMBL Hamburg’s Sample Preparation and Characterisation (SPC) Facility has released eSPC, an online platform for analysing data from biophysical experiments. The platform enables the scientific community to analyse data from different experiments without the need to travel.

2021

sciencescience-technology

15 October 2021 In the middle, there are two molecules of pUL21. One is blurred, to represent the molecule’s flexibility. In the background are two neuronal scenes. The one on the left is healthy and has a smooth surface. The one on the right is infected, which is represented by several green viral particles.

How herpes seizes proteins’ means of production

Science, Science & Technology The Graham and Crump groups at the University of Cambridge and the Svergun Group at EMBL Hamburg have discovered a mechanism by which the herpes simplex virus takes control of the molecular machinery of human cells. Their work reveals how a dedicated viral protein hijacks key host proteins, forcing…

2021

sciencescience-technology

13 October 2021 Illustration of a community of bacteria. Pills represent an antibiotic that can be used to treat an infection, and a second drug that could protect many gut bacteria from antibiotics.

Tackling the collateral damage from antibiotics

Science, Science & Technology Researchers from EMBL’s Typas group and collaborators have analysed the effects of 144 antibiotics on the wellbeing of gut microbes. The study improves our understanding of antibiotics’ side effects and suggests a new approach to mitigating the adverse effects of antibiotics therapy on gut…

2021

sciencescience-technology

5 October 2021 Illustration of a globe with colourful shapes and symbols superimposed.

A cellular atlas of an entire worm

Science, Science & Technology EMBL scientists and colleagues have developed an interactive atlas of the entire marine worm Platynereis dumerilii in its larval stage. The PlatyBrowser resource combines high-resolution gene expression data with volume electron microscopy images.

2021

sciencescience-technology

4 October 2021 Logos of University of Tartu and EMBL with text: “memorandum of understanding”. Illustrations of microorganisms in the background.

EMBL strengthens links with Estonia

Connections, Lab Matters A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between EMBL and the University of Tartu, a leading centre of research and training. The MoU aims to strengthen cooperation between EMBL and the life science research community in Estonia.

2021

connectionslab-matters

29 September 2021 Female scientist working at a biosafety cabinet, wearing a yellow protective gown and black gloves.

Transferable skills

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives In the lab, Diënty Hazenbrink works with microbes that live in our guts. In her free time, she enjoys wildlife photography. A shared set of skills facilitates both activities.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

23 September 2021 Pink and blue dominate a blurry image against a black background that is actually a global image of a 30-day-old Octopus vulgaris

The secret life of baby octopuses

Science, Science & Technology Some of the most amazing creatures live in the deep blue sea. The Mesoscopic Imaging Facility (MIF) at EMBL Barcelona was recently involved in studying one unique feature of the octopus: the ephemeral structures on the surface of their skin called Kölliker’s organs.

2021

sciencescience-technology

8 September 2021 Illustration of two halves of a pill, which releases chemical molecules that are taken up by gut bacteria in the vicinity.

Common medications accumulate in gut bacteria

Science, Science & Technology A new collaborative study led by EMBL group leaders Kiran Patil, Nassos Typas, and Peer Bork has found that common medications accumulate in human gut bacteria. This process reduces drug effectiveness and affects the metabolism of common gut microbes, thereby altering the gut microbiome.

2021

sciencescience-technology

7 September 2021 Close up of the interior of a light-sheet microscope, featuring optical equipment and a transparent cube.

A flip book for biological systems

Science, Science & Technology In the Mesoscopic Imaging Facility (MIF) at EMBL Barcelona, researchers study the details of biological systems in the context of organs, body parts, or entire organisms. This image shows OPTiSPIM1, one of the custom light-sheet microscope setups available at the facility.

2021

sciencescience-technology

3 August 2021 illustration of health care providers around a big heart

All heart

Alumni, Science & Technology A community of scientists is looking at the estimated three billion heart muscle cells in a human heart to better understand heart disease.

2021

alumniscience-technology

13 July 2021 From right to left, Ilaria Piazza and Ken Holmes’ portraits are side by side in circles on a greenish background

EMBL Alumni Awards 2021

Alumni, People & Perspectives EMBL alumni Ilaria Piazza and Ken Holmes have been recognised for their outstanding contributions, and will receive their awards as part of the celebrations for EMBL World Alumni Day.

2021

alumnipeople-perspectives

23 June 2021 Bright blue oblong shape with white hairs on surface on black background.

Starlet sea anemone

Picture of the week, Science & Technology EMBL PhD student Anniek Stokkermans captured this side view of a Nematostella vectensis larva during this transition, using instrumentation in the Advanced Light Microscopy Facility at EMBL Heidelberg.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

8 June 2021 Two scientists in lab coats working on an instrument in the lab.

EMBL external research community survey

Lab Matters EMBL is conducting an Impact Assessment of our experimental services to understand the value these services have for our external user community. If you have accessed EMBL experimental services at one or more of our facilities to support the conduct of your research, we would like to hear from you.

2021

lab-matters

8 June 2021 Purple, blue and yellow dots on a black background.

Dream team

Picture of the week, Science & Technology At EMBL, we have many dream teams – groups of individuals who support each other, innovate, and work together. One of those dream teams bridges two core facilities at EMBL Rome.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

21 May 2021 Image of a mosquito on a clear surface

EMBL scientists support malaria research

Science, Science & Technology EMBL scientists support research on malaria by providing freely available data resources and using innovative experimental approaches. Our Course and Conference Office facilitates the exchange of knowledge in the field by hosting the annual BioMalPar conference.

2021

sciencescience-technology

28 April 2021 Artistic representation of brain and DNA

Uniting strengths to expand research

Connections, Lab Matters The European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Italian Institute of Technology have signed an agreement to expand the scope of their collaboration to include areas of mutual interest and in the context of EMBL’s 2022-2026 Programme “Molecules to Ecosystems”.

2021

connectionslab-matters

27 April 2021 Microscope image of liver cells, highlighted in various colours.

Painting liver cells

Picture of the week, Science & Technology A page from a biologist’s colouring book? EMBL’s new interior wall design? Not quite – a bunch of liver cells, grown in the lab so that scientists can learn about fatty liver disease, or steatosis.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

13 April 2021 EMBL Heidelberg's main building, the top of the façade lit up by sunlight.

Morning sun

Lab Matters, Picture of the week Throwback to June 2014: While EMBL Heidelberg’s main entrance is still in the dark, the well-known EMBL logo is already lit by the morning sun.

2021

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

30 March 2021 A close-up photo of a shiny droplet of liquid that has been placed into one of the wells of a crystallisation plate.

Droplet beauty

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Hamburg use droplets of protein solution to grow protein crystals. By exposing the crystals to X-rays, they are able to determine the protein’s molecular structure.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

4 March 2021 An illustration of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq)

Induced pluripotent stem cells reveal causes of disease

Science, Science & Technology Scientists in the Stegle group and colleagues have studied induced pluripotent stem cells from around 1,000 donors to identify correlations between individual genetic variants and altered gene expression. They linked more than 4,000 of the genetic variants responsible for altered expression…

2021

sciencescience-technology

2 March 2021

Sleeping beauty

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Like caterpillars turning into beautiful butterflies, fruit fly larvae have to go through metamorphosis to finish their development. However, despite the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster being one of the best studied model organisms in biology, comparatively little attention has been given to this…

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

26 February 2021 Woman with long brown hair stands in front of snow scene with arms crossed in front of her.

Welcome: Sinem Saka

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives As one of EMBL’s newest group leaders, Sinem Saka will combine multiple technologies, such as microscopy and single-cell omics, to solve biological puzzles.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

22 February 2021 A scientist (only their hand is visible) inserting a 96-well plate into a sample dispensing device in the Sample Preparation and Characterisation Facility in Hamburg.

SPC Facility in Hamburg supports a new pan-European consortium

Connections, Lab Matters The Sample Preparation and Characterisation (SPC) Facility at EMBL Hamburg is one of the founding members of the Molecular-Scale Biophysics Research Infrastructure (MOSBRI). Within this new European initiative, the SPC Facility will offer services related to membrane proteins, protein complexes,…

2021

connectionslab-matters

16 February 2021 An assembly of proteins in an enzyme, presented in a cartoon style.

Cellular modern art

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This week's Picture of the Week, which could also be a masterpiece of modern art, shows the enzyme RNA polymerase III, an assembly of 17 individual proteins combined into this complex structure.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

11 February 2021 Maria-Theresa Licka holding a smartphone displaying an app she developed. Vineyards, houses and hills in the background.

Coding between the vines

Lab Matters EMBL Teen Maria-Theresa Licka shares how female scientists guided & inspired her to develop an app to ID vine disease.

2021

lab-matters

9 February 2021 Crystal cubes seen through a microscope

Purity, beauty, and perfection

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The regular structures of crystals are a source of inspiration and fascination to us humans. While the crystals in this picture were not grown in nature, but instead by Petra Drncova from EMBL Grenoble, they share the same attributes as those found in nature.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

29 January 2021 Flags of EMBL, Italy and CNR

Strengthening collaborations in Italy

Connections, Lab Matters EMBL and CNR have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen scientific cooperation. The agreement will foster collaborative projects and integrate them within the European and global scientific landscape.

2021

connectionslab-matters

26 January 2021 Two X-ray mirrors installed in the macromolecular crystallography beamline P14 at EMBL Hamburg. The mirrors are visible in the photo as dark rectangular crystal blocks, with two metal holders supporting the crystals in a stress-free position. The mirrors are inserted into a vacuum-compatible stainless steel vessel.

Mirror, mirror

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Hamburg use specially designed mirrors to reflect and focus X-ray beams onto tiny crystals made of proteins or other biological molecules.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

20 January 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 lineage

Science, Science & Technology A note on the coronavirus variant B.1.1.7, which has first been described in the U.K. and has spread to 57 countries. The note summarises epidemiological information about the spread of B.1.1.7 in the U.K. collated and in part conducted by researchers from EMBL-EBI.

2021

sciencescience-technology

19 January 2021 3D rendering of a human cell, attacked by a virus.

Cell under attack

Picture of the week, Science & Technology It’s almost a year since the coronavirus outbreak was declared a pandemic, affecting all our lives. While the virus continues its grip on the world, scientists are understanding it better and better, increasing our knowledge about it and opening up new ways to fight it.

2021

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

15 January 2021 young man with beard and mustache stands in front of window with blurry background

Welcome: Olivier Duss

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives One of EMBL’s newest group leaders, Olivier Duss, will explore how RNA folds into functional structures and how it works with proteins to control a diverse range of activities in the cell.

2021

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

22 December 2020

Cells in the holiday spirit

Picture of the week, Science & Technology It is that time of year to get into the holiday spirit, prepare for some time at home and relax after a strange and stressful year. Even the cells in our Picture of the Week are getting into the holiday spirit, forming this colourful Christmas tree.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

18 December 2020

Stronger together

Science, Science & Technology Gene activation requires the cooperative activity of multiple transcription factors. Until now, the mechanism used by these factors to coordinate their actions has been poorly understood. EMBL’s Krebs group presents a DNA footprinting method that makes it possible to determine whether…

2020

sciencescience-technology

8 December 2020 Windowed façade reflecting leafless trees.

Clear views

Lab Matters, Picture of the week With the external scaffolding removed, another step in the construction of the EMBL Imaging Centre is complete. Now we get a first glimpse of the final look of this stunning building.

2020

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

7 December 2020 Female scientist stands in front of electron microscope that is taller than she is

Seeing deeper inside cells

Science, Science & Technology While cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) was first envisioned in 1968, the advances the Mahamid group are bringing to this 3D method for studying molecules directly inside cells are new, and are likely to greatly expand its use.

2020

sciencescience-technology

2 December 2020 The image is a green coloured cell, with a wild and textured surface which is composed of many different shapes and shadows.

Scratching the surface on cell differentiation

Science, Science & Technology Scientists in the Diz-Muñoz group at EMBL Heidelberg are working to build understanding of the role that mechanical properties play in affecting cell behaviour – a young and rapidly developing field of study. They have developed and successfully used a highly specialised technique to manipulate…

2020

sciencescience-technology

23 November 2020 Tube-like structures of a cell at sub-cellular level in red and grey.

Replication cycle of SARS-CoV-2 in 3D

Science, Science & Technology Researchers have studied SARS-CoV-2 replication in cells and obtained detailed insights into the alterations induced in infected cells. This information is essential to guide the development of urgently needed therapeutic strategies for suppressing viral replication and induced pathology.

2020

sciencescience-technology

20 November 2020 The Reichstag building (left) and Paul-Löbe-Haus (right) in Berlin, as seen in daylight from across the Spree river.

Sharing our vision for the future

Connections, Lab Matters EMBL Director General Edith Heard introduced EMBL’s future plans during a parliamentary event at the Paul-Löbe-Haus of the German Bundestag in Berlin. She shared examples of EMBL’s research and outlined how EMBL’s activities will develop.

2020

connectionslab-matters

17 November 2020 Car parking rooftop with a solar power plant under construction on it.

Solar power

Lab Matters, Picture of the week Despite the cold autumn weather, workers are busy on the rooftop of the parking garage at EMBL Heidelberg. The 2176 m² rooftop is getting transformed into a combination of a green roof and a photovoltaic plant. The planted green roof will retain rainwater, while the solar panels – installed in…

2020

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

27 October 2020 Microscopic image of a cell, nucleus visible in bright green, cell membrane stained with a purple dye against black background.

Party at the nucleus?

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The nucleus of this cell fluoresces in bright green thanks to GFP-labelled nucleoporin proteins. EMBL scientists use engineered nucleoporins as 3D reference standards to improve super-resolution microscopy.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

15 October 2020 Four blue circular objects are surrounded with green structures, and the central blue circle with pink structures. The blue circles are human cell nuclei, and pink and green structures are proteins.

Repurposing drugs for a pan-coronavirus treatment

Science, Science & Technology Scientists from the Beltrao Group at EMBL-EBI and collaborators identified drug targets common to SARS-CoV-2, SARS-CoV-1, and MERS-CoV, three pathogenic coronaviruses. They also found potential drugs that could be repurposed as COVID-19 treatments, and against emerging coronavirus strains in the…

2020

sciencescience-technology

15 October 2020 Dr. Maria Arruda looks towards the camera with a serious but kind expression

Respecting diversity: the role of the scientist

Events, Lab Matters Maria Arruda is on a mission to make scientists think more about the role they play in society. After a career in academia and the life sciences, she is trying to help others see the bigger picture when it comes to the responsibility of the scientist.

2020

eventslab-matters

13 October 2020 Sea anemone polyp in side view showing two arms.

Crazy arms

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Sea anemones are amazing creatures. Despite their plant-like appearance and their tendency to remain fixed in one spot, they are actually animals.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

8 October 2020 Alvaro Crevenna, heads EMBL Rome’s Microscopy Facility. Credit: EMBL

Beyond the lens – microscopy at EMBL Rome

Lab Matters, Science & Technology Research facilities play a crucial role in the advancement of science by supporting scientists with specialised expertise and state-of-the-art equipment. The Microscopy Facility at EMBL Rome exemplifies this role by making a wide variety of light microscopy technologies available to its researchers…

2020

lab-mattersscience-technology

5 October 2020 EMBL and Vilnius University logos on a background of genomic data

New partnership in Lithuania

Connections, Lab Matters On 8 September, EMBL and Vilnius University Life Sciences Center signed a framework agreement for the establishment of the VU LSC–EMBL Partnership for Genome Editing Technologies.

2020

connectionslab-matters

1 October 2020 A group of people in an office are holding a videoconference. Some of the participants are wearing masks and gloves

Boosting the life sciences through alumni networks

Connections, Events EMBL’s network of alumni plays a vital role in advancing the life sciences globally. EMBL provides research, services, and infrastructure that help former staff to do this effectively. For several years EMBL has been discovering more avenues to help the life sciences across Europe. A key part of…

2020

connectionsevents

29 September 2020 Oliver Billker, Director of MIMS, is standing at the podium in front of a microphone. Behind him, a projected slide says “Welcome to Umeå University”.

The Nordic EMBL Partnership: supporting national research

Connections, Events The partnership between EMBL and four Nordic research institutions aims to stimulate scientific exchange and inspire scientific collaborations. This year’s conference of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine included many talks by EMBL researchers and a presentation by EMBL’s…

2020

connectionsevents

29 September 2020 A metal rack holding glass test tubes with yellow and red solutions in them.

Colourful test tubes

Picture of the week, Science & Technology To study the effect of commonly used drugs on bacterial envelopes, EMBL scientists applied a biochemical assay using a colour reaction. The deeper the red, the stronger the disruptive effect of the drug.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

24 September 2020 The conference key visual shows a variety of species engulfed by fire, reflecting the conference title, ‘Our House Is Burning: Scientific and Societal Responses to Mass Extinction’.

Dinosaurs, dodos, and the future of life on Earth

Events, Science & Technology EMBL’s 21st Science and Society Conference will address scientific and societal responses to mass extinctions. Ahead of his keynote speech, renowned palaeontologist Mike Benton explains how looking into the deep past can give us vital insights into the future of life on Earth.

2020

eventsscience-technology

17 September 2020 Colorful illustration conveys the balancing act women in science face, going between family and work responsibilities and wanting to succeed in both roles.

Indirect impacts of a pandemic on women in science

Events, Lab Matters The EMBL conference that explored direct and indirect impacts from the current pandemic on women in science allowed for information and story sharing both in the form of lectures but also via online platforms like Slack and social media that included Twitter.

2020

eventslab-matters

10 September 2020 Two researchers at EMBL's state-of-the-art Electron Microscopy Core Facility (EMCF). A female scientist is using a binocular microscope, a male scientist is standing next to her.

Level up!

Lab Matters ARISE fellowships to offer first-ever comprehensive training for bioscience infrastructure operations

2020

lab-matters

7 September 2020 science diplomacy

Looking forward

Connections, Lab Matters Two EMBL speakers gave presentations that looked toward the future and at ways to trailblaze on the endless frontier of science.

2020

connectionslab-matters

4 September 2020 Portrait picture of Erin Tranfield, member of the EMBL Alumni Association Board, against a blue-green background.

Supporting the alumni community

Alumni, People & Perspectives Erin Tranfield recently joined the EMBL Alumni Association Board as one of 15 newly elected members. Here, she talks about her new role on the board and reflects on how a life-changing event made her refocus her perspective on work and life.

2020

alumnipeople-perspectives

3 September 2020 Left: Slice of a cell in grey. Right: Two 3D reconstructions of parts of the slice, showing the internal structure.

Nuclear pores in their natural context

Science, Science & Technology Scientists from the Beck group have studied the 3D structure of nuclear pores in budding yeast. They show how the architecture of the nuclear pore complex differs inside cells compared to its form observed in vitro studies.

2020

sciencescience-technology

31 August 2020 3D image of plant cells. The ones identified by the algorithm are brightly coloured.

Intelligent software tackles plant cell jigsaw

Science, Science & Technology Starting with computer code and moving on to a more user-friendly graphical interface called PlantSeg, the Kreshuk Group at EMBL and collaborators built a simple open-access method to provide the most accurate and versatile analysis of plant tissue development to date.

2020

sciencescience-technology

26 August 2020 Colorful illustration conveys the balancing act women in science face, going between family and work responsibilities and wanting to succeed in both roles.

COVID-19’s indirect attack on women

Events, Science & Technology More than 500 people have registered for an EMBL conference, "The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on women in science: Challenges and solutions." Scheduled for 9 September, the conference is free and open to all. Pre-registration is still available and required to attend.

2020

eventsscience-technology

25 August 2020

Training the next generation of molecular biologists

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters The EMBL International PhD Programme is one of EMBL’s flagship training programmes. It forms part of our efforts to train and inspire talented scientists to become skilled and creative future leaders. Submission of applications for the current PhD student recruitment round is now possible.

2020

embl-announcementslab-matters

20 August 2020 A portrait photo of Geetika Malhotra, new Head of Web Development at EMBL-EBI.

Welcome: Geetika Malhotra

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives The Web Development team provides a central source of web design and development for EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI). In July, Geetika Malhotra joined the team as their new Head.

2020

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

11 August 2020 Different parts of a fruit fly arranged into an artificial green eye.

The eye of science

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This image is a composite of lateral pentascolopidial organs, a wing imaginal disc pouch, and an epithelial wound in a Drosophila larva. The organs are arranged here like eyelashes. Cells surrounding an epidermal wound appear as the iris and pupil of this artistic eye.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

4 August 2020 A long string of cells - red in the centre, yellow at the border.

Fish close-up

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This group of cells represents an interesting example of organ formation where cells simultaneously move and change their shapes in a highly coordinated manner.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

3 August 2020 A woman with glasses holds a book. The book cover says "Gene naming rules". Thought bubbles float around her head and display gene symbols like BRCA1.

Bagpipe and Pokemon, or how not to name a human gene

Science, Science & Technology The human genome harbours about 19 000 protein-coding genes, many of which still have no known function. As scientists unveil the secrets of our DNA, they come across novel genes that they need to refer to using a unique name. The Human Genome Organisation’s Gene Nomenclature Committee (HGNC) at…

2020

sciencescience-technology

20 July 2020 A magnifying glass hovers over the human gut, revealing its biodiversity.

Unparalleled inventory of the human gut ecosystem

Science, Science & Technology An international team of scientists has collated all known bacterial genomes from the human gut microbiome into a single large database. Their work will allow researchers to explore the links between bacterial genes and proteins, and their effects on human health.

2020

sciencescience-technology

16 July 2020 A collage of portrait photos of Jessica Vamathevan, Jan Korbel, and Nassos Typas.

Changes in senior roles at EMBL

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters Three changes in senior staff positions have been confirmed at EMBL today. Jessica Vamathevan becomes Head of Strategy, Jan Korbel becomes Head of Data Science for EMBL Heidelberg, and Nassos Typas becomes Senior Scientist.

2020

embl-announcementslab-matters

14 July 2020 The image shows a larva of Platynereis dumerilii, a marine worm. The body of the worm is shown in grey. Muscle strands are coloured in red. The muscles of one individual strand are highlighted in different, brighter colours.

Muscular worm larva

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The image shows a larva of Platynereis dumerilii, a marine worm. The image here was produced by Constantin Pape, a visiting predoctoral fellow in the Kreshuk group at EMBL Heidelberg.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

13 July 2020 scientists teaching about the microbiome

Applications for virtual learning lab open

Lab Matters The European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS), EMBL’s education facility, invites secondary school science teachers to participate in a virtual training course this autumn entitled ‘Introducing your microbiome’.

2020

lab-matters

8 July 2020 Alexander Aulehla on the left and Paul Flicek on the Right

Two EMBL scientists become EMBO Members

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters This year, EMBO elected 63 new members, including Alexander Aulehla, Group Leader and Senior Scientist at EMBL Heidelberg, and Paul Flicek, Associate Director of EMBL-EBI Services, Senior Scientist, Group and Team Leader at EMBL-EBI.

2020

embl-announcementslab-matters

8 July 2020 The Logo of the ALPX company.

ALPX – smart crystallography

Lab Matters The CrystalDirect® technology, combined with the web-based CRIMS software enable a fully automated, remote-controlled protein-to-structure pipeline.

2020

lab-matters

8 July 2020 Artwort illustrating various aspects of infection research. The centre of the image shows a cartoon representation of a coronavirus. The spheric shape has been overlaid with a map of the world to illustrate the global spread of viruses. The edges of the artwork feature images of potential virus hosts (bats, poultry, dromedary), a group of humans, a microscope, pills, a syringe and vaccine vial, protein structures, and an illustration of a human lung. The background is set in yellow and red colour.

What COVID-19 is teaching us

Events, Science & Technology The virtual EMBL Conference ‘SARS-CoV-2: Towards a New Era in Infection Research’ explored the importance of fundamental research, collaboration, and data science in containing the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, and discussed opportunities to improve our response to pandemics in the future.

2020

eventsscience-technology

7 July 2020 The rainbow pride flag hanging in front of the Advanced Training Centre at EMBL Heidelberg. Picture taken in summer 2020.

Pride at EMBL

Lab Matters, Picture of the week EMBL brings together more than 1700 people from all over the world, from a variety of academic and cultural backgrounds. This creates an environment in which there is constant exchange of both scientific knowledge and cultural heritage. While it seems obvious that EMBL, as an international…

2020

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

6 July 2020 EMBL Director General Edith Heard standing at a laboratory work bench, facing the camera. Edith Heard on the left side, lab bench with pipettes and equipment on the right. Photo taken by érôme Brébion at Institut Curie, Paris.

Edith Heard elected senator of the Max Planck Society

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters EMBL Director General Edith Heard has been elected a senator of the Max Planck Society, one of Germany’s leading scientific research organisations. She joins the Senate along with Nobel Laureates and EMBL alumni Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard and Stefan W. Hell, as well as nine additional new…

2020

embl-announcementslab-matters

3 July 2020 stem cells neurons differentiation

From stem cells to neurons

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Heidelberg have investigated stem cells and how they differentiate to become neurons. Their approach included an assessment of the complex interplay of molecules during the differentiation process and generated fundamental new insights into the role of a protein called Sox2 in…

2020

sciencescience-technology

2 July 2020 epigenetic reprogramming, epigenetic memory, Hackett group

Unravelling epigenetic reprogramming

Science, Science & Technology A study conducted by the Hackett group at EMBL Rome has identified key factors controlling the complex system of gene regulation during early embryo development, shedding new light on the mechanisms behind these events and on their evolutionary implications. Their findings are published in Nature…

2020

sciencescience-technology

29 June 2020 Gene Editing and Embryology Facility at EMBL Rome

Editing the mouse genome to study SARS-CoV-2 infection

Science, Science & Technology To study how SARS-CoV-2 infects cells, the Gene Editing and Embryology Facility (GEEF) at EMBL Rome will generate mice that express a human version of a protein called ACE2. The mouse line will be shared with preclinical research collaborators carrying out vaccine and antibody trials, and with the…

2020

sciencescience-technology

23 June 2020 EMBL's Equality and Diversity Officers. Zac O'Sullivan (left) and Luisa Vieites Rodrigues (right)

Equality and diversity at EMBL

Lab Matters EMBL is striving to make its labs and offices a welcoming and inclusive environment for all. To achieve this goal, EMBL's Equality and Diversity Officers, Luisa Vieites Rodrigues and Zac O'Sullivan, are working closely with leadership and the EMBL community. In this interview, they share their…

2020

lab-matters

18 June 2020 Illustration of gender balances in academia

Closing the gender gap

EMBL Announcements, Events To explore the origins of gender imbalances in academia and possible ways of overcoming them, international experts will meet for the virtual EMBL | EMBO | HHMI conference ‘Gender Roles and their Impact in Academia’ from 13–15 Oct 2020. The conference’s outcomes will be integrated into a…

2020

embl-announcementsevents

16 June 2020 Tissue culture plates in an incubator.

Understanding how SARS-CoV-2 behaves in the gut

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL and Heidelberg University Hospital are studying how the novel coronavirus behaves in the gut to try to better understand its epidemiology and prevent its spread. To do this, they are combining advanced imaging and sequencing technologies to study coronavirus in human intestinal…

2020

sciencescience-technology

16 June 2020 Composite image of fly larvae organs making up a flower

From fly to flower

Picture of the week, Science & Technology In this composite image, visual artist Mona Kakanj assembled three different biological structures in fly larvae into a flower. The original images were taken as part of a research project by Parisa Kakanj in Maria Leptin’s group.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

15 June 2020 Arise logo

Life sciences open their doors for engineers

Lab Matters The European Molecular Biology Laboratory has secured 6.8 million Euros funding from the European Commission to launch a unique training programme. The ARISE Programme will train and develop Europe’s next generation leadership for research infrastructures in the life sciences.

2020

lab-matters

15 June 2020 Key visual for the virtual EMBL conference ‘SARS-CoV-2: Towards a New Era in Infection Research’. Credits: Aleksandra Krolik/EMBL

Improving our response to emerging pandemics

EMBL Announcements, Events The emergence of previously unknown pathogens, such as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, raises many questions. To explore these questions in an international scientific forum, EMBL will host the virtual conference ‘SARS-CoV-2: Towards a New Era in Infection Research’ on 3 July. Invited…

2020

embl-announcementsevents

9 June 2020 This image shows the structure of a bacterial group II intron

Genetic cut and paste at atomic resolution

Science, Science & Technology Researchers in the Marcia group at EMBL Grenoble and the De Vivo lab at the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa have obtained some of the most detailed ever snapshots of the splicing process in systems known as group II self-splicing introns. The new insights will help scientists to develop…

2020

sciencescience-technology

9 June 2020 Beamline Hamburg

Shining high-brilliance beams on coronavirus structure

Science, Science & Technology EMBL researchers are studying COVID-19-related molecules by exposing them to high-brilliance X-ray beams. The Svergun group at EMBL Hamburg is using biological small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) as part of a global effort by scientists to elucidate the structural organisation of SARS-CoV-2…

2020

sciencescience-technology

8 June 2020 Microscopic image showing a macrophage that has been infected with Salmonella (green), causing cellular cathepsins (red) to locate to the nucels (blue).

Re-trafficking proteins to fight Salmonella infections

Science, Science & Technology Scientists including members of EMBL’s Typas group have investigated how immune cells called macrophages respond to infection by the intracellular pathogen Salmonella enterica. They discovered that Salmonella causes newly produced cathepsins to accumulate in the nuclei of infected cells to…

2020

sciencescience-technology

1 June 2020 An illustration of single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq)

Enabling functional genomics studies in individual cells

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Heidelberg have developed a new method, called Targeted Perturb-seq (TAP-seq), which increases the scale and precision of functional genomics CRISPR–Cas9 screens by orders of magnitude. Their method overcomes limitations in previous applications of single-cell RNA sequencing,…

2020

sciencescience-technology

27 May 2020 Automated sample changer and diffractometer at the ID30B X-ray crystallography beamline at ESRF Grenoble.

Facilitating COVID-19 structural biology research

Connections, Science EMBL and the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) restart the activities of the Joint Structural Biology Group in Grenoble to support coronavirus-related projects. A new initiative will allow users to be granted access to the High-Throughput Crystallisation (HTX) lab at EMBL and to a…

2020

connectionsscience

22 May 2020

The hunt for neutralising antibodies against SARS-CoV-2

Science, Science & Technology Scientists hope that a legacy of the novel coronavirus in recovered COVID-19 patients – antibodies in their blood – could lead to drugs to treat others. The Merten group at EMBL Heidelberg has pivoted its microfluidics platform to support the search for neutralising antibodies that could…

2020

sciencescience-technology

22 May 2020

EMBL scientists investigate rare lung disease

Science, Science & Technology Researchers in EMBL’s Zaugg group have studied the causes of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), a rare disease that causes high blood pressure in the arteries of the lungs. The study, carried out in collaboration with Stanford University School of Medicine, compared lung cells of patients…

2020

sciencescience-technology

19 May 2020 EMBL group leader Georgia Rapti

Welcome: Georgia Rapti

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives The nervous system has fascinated Georgia Rapti ever since her first introduction to biology. Her research group in the Developmental Biology unit will focus on understanding the early biological events involved in the nervous system’s formation.

2020

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

15 May 2020 Cell division

Tracing the origins of cells

Science, Science & Technology Researchers from the Sharpe group at EMBL Barcelona have published a method to track the developmental history of a cell using the gene editing tool CRISPR–Cas9, but without the need to create transgenic organisms.

2020

sciencescience-technology

11 May 2020

EMBL SPC facility supports COVID-19 projects

Science, Science & Technology The Sample Preparation and Characterisation Facility (SPC) at EMBL Hamburg reopens to support scientists working on Covid-19 research. The SPC Facility is one of the best equipped facilities in Europe is therefore in high demand from external users. Re-opening the facility also allows experts at…

2020

sciencescience-technology

29 April 2020 The Influenza virus

Understanding the influenza virus

Science, Science & Technology The infectious disease commonly known as flu is caused by the influenza virus. It spreads around the world in seasonal outbreaks, causing millions of infections and hundreds of thousands of deaths each year. Stephen Cusack, Head of EMBL Grenoble, has been studying different aspects of the influenza…

2020

sciencescience-technology

28 April 2020

Dancing chromosomes

Picture of the week, Science & Technology In human cells, the genetic material is packaged into 23 different DNA molecules, the chromosomes. Each chromosome is present in two copies, one inherited from the paternal sperm, and the other from the maternal egg. During most of the cell’s life, chromosomes take the shape of long,…

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

28 April 2020 Close-up view of the interior of a protein analytics system

Exploring synthetic antibodies to stop coronavirus

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Hamburg and Karolinska Institutet Stockholm aim to find synthetic antibodies – known as nanobodies – that bind a surface protein of the novel SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Nanobodies could prevent the virus from entering human cells and causing COVID-19.

2020

sciencescience-technology

23 April 2020 Key visual for the EMBO | EMBL symposium ‘The Four-Dimensional Genome’

EMBL hosts its first virtual conference

Events, Lab Matters The virtual EMBO | EMBL symposium ‘The Four-Dimensional Genome’ brought together 470 participants. Here, Jürgen Deka, Head of External Scientific Training, discusses how he and his team overcame the organisational challenges.

2020

eventslab-matters

22 April 2020 Portrait photo of Brendan Rouse, EMBL's Environmental Officer

Welcome: Brendan Rouse

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Brendan Rouse came to Heidelberg in March as EMBL’s Environmental Officer, tasked with monitoring the organisation’s environmental impact and promoting sustainable practices. Here, he discusses his plans for the new role.

2020

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

16 April 2020 Micropipette tips in a liquid-handling robot

Helping to scale up coronavirus testing

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at EMBL Heidelberg are contributing their expertise in a community effort to develop large-scale testing methods for coronavirus. Their goal is to increase the capacity and speed of testing, which is crucial for containing the pandemic.

2020

sciencescience-technology

1 April 2020

Understanding brain tumours in children

Science, Science & Technology The causes of 40 percent of all cases of certain medulloblastoma – dangerous brain tumours affecting children – are hereditary. These are the findings of a recent genetic analysis carried out by scientists from EMBL and numerous colleagues around the world.

2020

sciencescience-technology

31 March 2020 Portrait of Bastian Drees, Head of Library

Welcome: Bastian Drees

Lab Matters, People & Perspectives Bastian Drees is a biophysicist turned librarian, who joined EMBL in January as the new Head of Library. Here, he discusses the changing role of libraries and how they can help scientists organise and share their results.

2020

lab-matterspeople-perspectives

11 March 2020 Leukaemia stem cells are located in a patient’s bone marrow (shown here in blue) in the so-called stem cell niche. The green structure is the bone itself. Credit: Dr. Raphael Lutz, Haas Lab

€2.45 m to investigate leukaemia causes and therapies

EMBL Announcements, Science The Heidelberg-based LeukoSyStem consortium investigates leukaemia stem cells in acute myeloid leukaemia. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research financially supports this collaboration between Heidelberg University Hospital, HI-STEM gGmbH, the German Cancer Research Center and EMBL.

2020

embl-announcementsscience

11 February 2020

Breathe in, breathe out

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This image shows the tracheal system of a live fruit fly larva. Daniel Rios from the Leptin Group and Dimitri Kromm from the Hufnagel Group used this advanced microscope to investigate the dynamics of tracheal cells during development.

2020

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

5 February 2020

Protecting data in the cloud

Science, Science & Technology Cloud computing offers unprecedented opportunities for global-scale research collaborations. It also presents a unique set of challenges in terms of data protection and the ethics of data sharing.

2020

sciencescience-technology

5 February 2020

Cancer mutations occur decades before diagnosis

Science, Science & Technology Researchers at EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Francis Crick Institute have analysed the whole genomes of over 2600 tumours from 38 different cancer types to determine the chronology of genomic changes during cancer development.

2020

sciencescience-technology

5 February 2020

Analysis of human genomes in the cloud

Science, Science & Technology Scientists from EMBL present a tool for large-scale analysis of genomic data with cloud computing. Main advantages of the new tool, called Butler, are continuous system monitoring and its ability to self-heal in case of failure, allowing for 43% more efficient data processing than previous…

2020

sciencescience-technology

31 January 2020

Statement on Brexit

EMBL Announcements, Lab Matters Today marks the next chapter in the UK’s relationship with Europe. While we wait to see what a future relationship brings, researchers will continue to work across borders to tackle society’s most pressing problems, such as climate change, ageing, and disease.

2020

embl-announcementslab-matters

31 December 2019

Tumour takeover

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in women. It is so deadly because tumours often return after successful cancer treatment. This recurrence is caused by individual dormant cancer cells remaining inside the breast. These cells can develop into active cancer cells…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

24 December 2019

Launching proteins

Picture of the week, Science & Technology What looks like a photo-series of an explosive eruption are actually uptaking proteins, captured by Markus Mund from the Ries Group at EMBL Heidelberg. The images were made in an attempt to learn how the different proteins that take up molecules into the cells via endocytosis – the cellular…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

17 December 2019

Reshaping our DNA

Picture of the week, Science & Technology DNA is present in each cell of our body. If all the DNA from one human cell was removed and aligned in a single strand, it would in theory add up to a total length of about two metres. In order to fit into the nucleus of a cell, DNA has to be compressed by […]

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

13 December 2019

Graduation Ceremony 2019

Lab Matters Forty-seven PhD students from all of EMBL’s six sites were celebrated during EMBL’s 2019 Graduation Ceremony on Friday 13 December

2019

lab-matters

10 December 2019

Birth of two HeLa stars

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This picture of the week, taken by Arina Rybina in the Ellenberg group at EMBL Heidelberg, shows a high-resolution 3D microscopy image of living human cells: HeLa cells. In this fascinating fluorescing microspace, two newly formed daughter nuclei are captured to study the assembly of nuclear pore…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

3 December 2019 Black and blue hexagon shapes with some yellow and red hot spots

Skin mosaic

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This beautiful mosaic of mostly hexagonal cells is the outer skin layer of a zebrafish larva as seen under a microscope. Each skin cell exhibits a unique pattern of actin ridges. Actin is a family of globular multifunctional proteins found in almost all eukaryotic cells. Actin forms microfilaments,…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

26 November 2019

EMBL makes insulin visible

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The hormone insulin helps to remove sugar from the blood after a meal. This is important, as in the long term high blood sugar levels damage our bodies. Diabetes of type 1 or type 2 is a direct consequence of a failure to produce sufficient insulin or to release it from the cells in which […]

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

19 November 2019

Formation of a brain

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The brain is the most complex organ in the human body. Yet despite it being the organ that makes us conscious beings – and despite the fact that researchers have been studying it for generations – it’s still a constant source of surprise. To help lift the veil on some of its mystery, Lina…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

5 November 2019

A mix of sensations

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Traditionally, we talk about having five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. In reality, our bodies are capable of much more. Sitting right under our skin are a variety of sensory neurons, which are specialised in detecting light touch, pain, temperature, itch or the body’s position.…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

29 October 2019

Inside out, and grub becomes fly

Picture of the week, Science & Technology The three bluish blobs shown in the top right corner of this image may not resemble the sphere of noodles that is the human brain, but they are still essential – at least for the fruit fly. This Picture of the Week shows the brain lobes of Drosophila. It’s an insect so tiny and so […]

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

22 October 2019

A perfect model

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Is it a fungus or a strange plant? Actually it’s the larval form of Platynereis – a group of marine ringed worms. Scientists have been using them in their studies for the past 70 years, and they are among the preferred lab organisms. They are easy to keep in the lab, and under temperature and…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

15 October 2019

Bringing life science to you

Lab Matters, Picture of the week EMBL not only produces excellent science and innovative technologies; it also shares its knowledge and experience with partners from around the world – and with the public. As well as offering teacher training in the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences, science movie nights, and…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

8 October 2019

The zebrafish earned its stripes

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Despite missing the characteristic stripes one would expect from a zebra – or a zebrafish – the fractals in this Picture of the Week show a zebrafish; or at least some cells in a zebrafish embryo, a few hours after fertilisation. Zebrafish are not only popular aquarium fish, they are also an…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

1 October 2019

The evolution of the eye

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Model organisms are species that are studied extensively to understand particular biological phenomena and processes, with the expectation that discoveries made in the model organism will provide insight into the workings of other organisms. The small marine ringed worm Platynereis dumerilii gained…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

25 September 2019

A giant called dumpy

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Fruit flies have something that we don’t have: they produce a protein called dumpy. This protein is the largest created by insects, and is comparable in size to the largest human protein – titin. While titin is vital for our muscle function, dumpy connects the soft cells of the insect’s…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

17 September 2019

The end of a productive day

Lab Matters, Picture of the week It’s evening and the Sun is setting over the mountains surrounding the city of Grenoble – home to one of EMBL’s six sites – bathing the mountaintops in fiery red light. The Picture of the Week, taken by Zuzanna Kaczmarska shows the lab she worked in after a long and busy day. Bottles…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

10 September 2019

Tracking the beginning of life

Picture of the week, Science & Technology All mammalian life starts with the fusion of egg and sperm, resulting in the creation of a single cell called a zygote. This develops into an embryo through a series of cell divisions, in which the number of cells doubles at each step. Todays’ Picture of the Week was taken by Manuel Eguren of the…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

3 September 2019

A robust allrounder

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This gorgeous image of a stained adult marine worm was created by former EMBL postdoc Hernando Martinez using structured microscopy. The worm itself was captured during plankton extraction off the coast of Sweden. There are over 10 000 species of these swimming worms, and they have adapted to every…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

27 August 2019

Where science meets art

Lab Matters, Picture of the week The most basic building blocks of life are the biological molecules in our cells. While these molecules are too small to see with most microscopes, they have incredibly complex and beautiful structures. Therefore, the Protein Data Bank in Europe (PDBe), The Art Society CANTAB and The Art Society…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

20 August 2019

When life takes shape

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Today’s picture of the week is not only a colourful one, it is also a snapshot of the vast number of shapes that the cells inside an animal body can adopt. How this variety comes about is investigated in the Leptin group at EMBL Heidelberg.  To understand the shapes of the cells in fruit fly…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

13 August 2019

Have fun, be protected

People & Perspectives, Picture of the week Working in a lab very often requires some kind of protection: gloves, safety goggles, lab coat, hearing protection. Sandra – now at BASF in Ludwigshafen – had fun getting ready for her work in the medicinal chemistry lab at EMBL! Here, she is about to grind potassium permanganate and copper…

2019

people-perspectivespicture-of-the-week

6 August 2019

The muscles that regulate blood pressure

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Low blood pressure (hypotension) or high blood pressure (hypertension) are risk factors for many diseases and affect more than 20% of the global population. How blood pressure is regulated is part of the research done in the Heppenstall group at EMBL Rome.  In today’s Picture of the…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

30 July 2019

Swiss day!

People & Perspectives, Picture of the week The 1700 people working at EMBL’s six sites come from more than 80 different countries. Many of them haven’t come straight from their home country to one of the EMBL sites but have also lived in other countries in between. While all of them are proud to work at EMBL they are also proud of…

2019

people-perspectivespicture-of-the-week

23 July 2019

Muscle games

Picture of the week, Science & Technology Every single moment of our life we use our muscles – most of the time without even thinking about it. Some muscles, like our heart, we cannot even control at all. How our brain communicates with our muscles is still not fully understood. The communication between our brain and our skeletal…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

16 July 2019

The birth of new cells – when two become four

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This colourful picture, taken by EMBL postdoc Arina Rybina using a confocal fluorescence microscope, shows human cells in the process of cell division. Eventually, each mother cell brings into existence two identical daughter cells. To visualise the process by light microscopy, different cell…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

9 July 2019

Working with a view

Lab Matters, Picture of the week EMBL has six sites in Europe and the newest is EMBL Barcelona. It opened in October 2017 and is still growing. Eventually, it will be home to eight research groups, all of them working to discover how tissues and organs function and develop. EMBL Barcelona is located in the Barcelona Biomedical…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

2 July 2019

Cell duplication

Picture of the week, Science & Technology What looks like a pair of scary alien eyes is actually the final stage in the duplication of a cell. Cell duplication is preceded by a process called mitosis, in which the replicated chromosomes are separated into two new nuclei. Mitosis is the prerequisite for a cell to divide into two identical…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

25 June 2019

A colourful day at EMBL-EBI

Lab Matters, Picture of the week EMBL is an intergovernmental organisation, currently supported by 26 member states, one prospect and two associate member states. There are more than 1700 people working at EMBL, who come from more than 80 countries, creating a multicultural environment. EMBL also operates from six sites in Europe:…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

18 June 2019

A no-brainer

Lab Matters, Picture of the week Have you ever wondered what reflex testing is about? Why does your doctor tap the space below your knee with a hammer to see if your leg kicks forward? At the centre of this involuntary reaction is the muscle spindle, of which you can see a close-up in today’s Picture of the Week. Muscle spindles…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

11 June 2019

Rainbow lab

Lab Matters, Picture of the week Laboratories all over the world are often chaotic, a bit messy and look grey and unwelcoming. Not so in this lab, pictured by EMBL staff member Emily Savage. The differently coloured fluids, arranged in a row, bring vivid colours into the more subdued environment of the lab. The picture was taken…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

4 June 2019

Colourful yeast

Lab Matters, Picture of the week Most of us love brewer’s yeast, or at least the food that it’s helped us to produce since ancient times. Without Saccharomyces cerevisiae (its Latin name) we couldn’t enjoy wine, beer or most types of bread. Besides its role in food production, S. cerevisiae is also an important model…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

28 May 2019

A fiery end to a productive day

Lab Matters, Picture of the week EMBL’s sites provide spectacular views, such as this fiery sunset at the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton. The campus, in the heart of the Cambridgeshire countryside, is home to several institutes and organisations working on genomics and computational biology. Among them is EMBL’s European…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

21 May 2019

From fruit flies to cancer treatment

Picture of the week, Science & Technology This image – resembling a network of rivers and canals – actually shows the tracheal tip cell of a fruit fly. Fruit flies are heavily used in research and they are a common model organism in developmental biology. Researchers at EMBL use the larvae of fruit flies to study tracheal cell…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

14 May 2019

Walking on DNA

Picture of the week, Science & Technology EMBL is a world-leading organisation for life science research. Its scientists work in diverse research fields spanning the whole of molecular biology. While the molecules the researchers are working on are often microscopic and impossible to see with the naked eye, one research topic clearly…

2019

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

7 May 2019

EMBL sees it all

Lab Matters, Picture of the week The hexagons visible in this Picture of the Week are the eyes of an ordinary housefly, visualised with a scanning electron microscope. Former staff member Anna Steyer, who captured this brilliant image, has coloured seven of the receptor areas of the eye to create a stylised version…

2019

lab-matterspicture-of-the-week

22 March 2018

LifeTime – a visionary proposal for an EU Flagship

Connections, Lab Matters Following the completion of the Human Genome Project  in 2001, scientists and the media described the genome as “the book of life”, holding the answers to the way genes are linked to disease. Yet, seventeen years later, we are still deciphering how cells interpret this book. Since…

2018

connectionslab-matters

3 November 2017 An image of Tara which was sailed around the world for four years during the Tara Oceans expedition. PHOTO by S Bollet/Tara Expeditions

Science at sea

Science A talent for organisation has taken EMBL’s Steffi Kandels-Lewis across the globe

2017

science

6 July 2017

CSSB opens its doors

Connections, Lab Matters On 29 June, at a ceremony in front of 700 guests, the Centre for Structural Systems Biology (CSSB) in Hamburg, was officially opened. At the event on the Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) Campus in Hamburg, Helmut Dosch, Chairman of the DESY Board of Directors, presented Head of EMBL Hamburg…

2017

connectionslab-matters

19 December 2016 The 2016 intake of EMBL PhD students

First year PhDs complete their training

Lab Matters For the past two months EMBL Heidelberg has hosted around 60 first year PhD students from EMBL’s International PhD Programme (EIPP). From thousands of applicants, the students were selected from over 40 countries to work on their PhD research at one of EMBL’s five sites – Grenoble, Hamburg,…

2016

lab-matters

4 August 2016 45 pupils from Saarland, Germany visit EMBL-EBI

Just try!

Lab Matters German students visit EMBL-EBI on a tour to explore a new culture and different career paths

2016

lab-matters

21 April 2016 Anne Ephrussi wears the medal of the Order of Légion d’Honneur, the highest distinction in France. PHOTO: EMBL Photolab/Marietta Schupp

Awards & Honours

Lab Matters EMBL scientists regularly receive prestigious awards – meet the latest honourees.

2016

lab-matters

12 February 2016 Cells formed circles where blinking happened in a wave, rolling outwards from the centre. IMAGE: EMBL/C.Tsiairis

In sync

Science, Science & Technology What do cells in an embryo have in common with schools of fish, swarms of fireflies, and applauding audiences?

2016

sciencescience-technology

17 December 2015 Digital zebrafish embryo provided the first complete developmental blueprint of a vertebrate in 2008. IMAGE: EMBL/Keller et al.

SPIM doctors

Science From initial development to a start-up company: Selective Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM) at EMBL.

2015

science

17 December 2015

What’s on in 2016

Events With 28 conferences and 57 courses, 2016 will be EMBL’s most eventful year to date.

2015

events

2 December 2015 Gut bacteria are more affected by metformin than by the type-2 diabetes it is prescribed to treat. IMAGE: Courtesy of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (BY-NC-SA)

Drugging bacteria

Science Commonly used diabetes drug metformin impacts gut bacteria more than disease itself

2015

science

30 November 2015 on course - the comprehensive catalogue for biomedical training in Europe

Toolkit for trainers

Lab Matters The new Toolkit for Trainers, an online resource hosted at EMBL-EBI, helps biomedical science trainers create and explore new ways of teaching.

2015

lab-matters

25 November 2015

Humans of EMBL

Lab Matters Compelling short stories that shine light on the life and work of EMBL staff.

2015

lab-matters

24 November 2015

Awards & Honours

Lab Matters EMBL scientists regularly receive prestigious awards – meet the latest honourees.

2015

lab-matters

24 November 2015 No coincidence: organisers of this year’s PhD Symposium gather at EMBL Heidelberg 22–24 October for Just by Chance? Randomness and variability shaping biology. PHOTO: EMBL Photolab/Marietta Shupp

EMBL in pictures

Events A snapshot of the many activities and events that took place in the world of EMBL this Autumn.

2015

events

23 November 2015 More than 600 'diplomas' were awarded to budding crystallographers for successfully fishing crystals! PHOTO: DESY 2015

High-throughput event

Events Energy, enthusiasm and endurance on tap as thousands attend 12-hour Hamburg Night of Science.

2015

events

30 October 2015

One hard pull

Science Fibres that pull membrane to form a vesicle exert a force that’s 2500 times a yeast cell’s own weight

2015

science

14 October 2015

Lighting the way

Lab Matters A microscopy technique is poised to shine new light on biological questions: as sheets of light can scan everything from developing embryos to single cells or functioning brains, a technique called light-sheet microscopy is gaining traction. It enables scientists to observe living cells in three…

2015

lab-matters

5 October 2015

Nobel connections

Lab Matters Amidst the excitement of Nobel Week, behind the scenes of the annual Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings.

2015

lab-matters

2 October 2015 The 1000 Genomes Project: a timeline

A lasting legacy

Science 1000 Genomes Project pushed technologies and knowledge forward to understand what is 'normal' human genetic variation

2015

science

1 October 2015 What do diatoms really do? Chris Bowler would like to know. IMAGE: Sebastien Colin

Marine mysteries

Science From the role of diatoms to how life evolved - scientists' pressing questions about life in the sea.

2015

science

28 September 2015

EMBL-EBI training news

Events Highlights from EMBL-EBI’s Training Programme: Open Day, revamped webpages, free webinar series.

2015

events

23 September 2015

Checkpoint architecture

Science A nuclear pore riddle: how can you use the same number of pieces to form two rings that fit inside each other?

2015

science

22 September 2015

MASSIFly efficient

Science MASSIF-1 processes its 10,000th crystal, less than one year after the beamline became operational.

2015

science

17 September 2015 The scientists combined data from a variety of techniques to better understand how rats – and humans – age. IMAGE: Brandon Toyama/Salk Institute

Ages apart

Science Multifaceted approach reveals how brain and liver age, helps explain why ageing brain loses plasticity.

2015

science

11 September 2015

Driving science in Denmark

Alumni Alumni Rune Linding and Guillermo Montoya join colleagues and peers at the first Danish chapter meeting.

2015

alumni

9 September 2015 Vinton Cerf, Google Chief Internet Evangelist, and a "fathers of the Internet".

From packets to planets

Events Insights from the evangelical Vint Cerf, a “founding father of the Internet”, during a visit to EMBL.

2015

events

26 August 2015 Hands-on sessions were a crucial part of the course. PHOTO: EMBL Photolab/Marietta Schupp

Super impressions

Events "It's like living a review!" Participants of recent super-resolution microscopy course share their highlights

2015

events

25 August 2015 Maja Köhn. PHOTO: EMBL Photolab/Marietta Schupp

Chemical bonds

Lab Matters Maja Köhn’s lab is ideal to learn what life is like working at the interface of disciplines.

2015

lab-matters

24 August 2015

Celebrating excellence

Alumni EMBL rewards the special work of alumni through the John Kendrew and Lennart Philipson awards.

2015

alumni

24 August 2015

Molecular momentum

Alumni Andrew Miller, first head of EMBL Grenoble, reflects on four decades at the Outstation.

2015

alumni

24 August 2015 Janet Thornton. Photo: Robert Slowley

Transitions

Lab Matters Janet Thornton reflects on her time as Director of one of Europe’s fastest growing research institutes.

2015

lab-matters

24 August 2015

Alumni board meeting

Alumni EMBL Alumni Association board meets for the last time in their current constellation.

2015

alumni

24 August 2015 Twelve members make up the EMBL Alumni Association board, taking up office in 2016

New board from 2016

Alumni Results are in for the EMBL Alumni Association board election – the board takes up office in 2016.

2015

alumni

24 August 2015

Cellular synergy

Events Alumnus Thomas Vaccari reflects on the first joint symposium with EMBL Monterotondo, in Milan.

2015

events

24 August 2015

Awards & Honours

Lab Matters EMBL scientists regularly receive prestigious awards – meet the latest honourees.

2015

lab-matters

24 August 2015 Fay Christodoulou, together with EMBL’s Vladimir Benes and Miroculus’ João Pereira de Lima

Decoding disease

Alumni Behind the scenes of start-up Miroculus, developing a non-invasive test for early-stage disease.

2015

alumni

24 August 2015

An ocean odyssey

Science A journalist who spent six weeks aboard Tara reflects on the expedition’s extraordinary outcomes.

2015

science

24 August 2015

Stick out your tongue!

Alumni Alumnus Luis Bejarano asked Spanish students to stick out their tongues to analyse their microbiome.

2015

alumni

20 August 2015

Life in 3D

Science EMBL scientists map ‘switches’ for distant control of gene expression.

2015

science

12 August 2015 Organiser Lars Steinmetz invites young researchers to the conference. PHOTO: EMBL Photolab/Claudiu Grozea

Make it personal

Events Leading scientists will gather in Heidelberg this November to discuss the potential of personalised health.

2015

events

10 August 2015 DREAM challenges

Life is but a DREAM

Science Crowd sourcing initiative to predict effects of toxic compounds: results of 2013 DREAM Challenge.

2015

science

28 July 2015

Union makes success

Lab Matters Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU) with the University of Heidelberg, renewed until 2025.

2015

lab-matters

28 July 2015

Political science

Lab Matters Alumnus Damian Brunner revisits EMBL in a very special capacity, as Swiss delegate on EMBL’s Council.

2015

lab-matters

17 July 2015

Science of Spider-Man

Events Web of lies? Science Movie Night reveals science behind the most famous spider bite in film history.

2015

events

13 July 2015

EIPOD goes cubic

Lab Matters EI3POD: flagship interdisciplinary postdoc programme opens its doors to academia and industry.

2015

lab-matters

9 July 2015 One from Many

One from Many

Lab Matters Database administrator's photo essay reflects internationality and personality of the Genome Campus.

2015

lab-matters

27 May 2015

ELIXIR accelerates

Lab Matters ELIXIR receives major Horizon 2020 funding to ‘EXCELERATE' activities over the next four years.

2015

lab-matters

21 May 2015

It runs in the family

Science Detailed structural study shows distantly related viruses share a common machinery for replication.

2015

science

21 May 2015

Sense of space

Science EMBL scientists demonstrate that spatial constraints are a key factor in determining nucleus size.

2015

science

7 May 2015

Taking out the trash

Science Unveiling the shape of... the 'molecular bin man' – cryoEM helps reveals p62 polymer in 3D.

2015

science

29 April 2015

Inside industry: Part II

Alumni Alumni in senior positions in industry share career challenges, highlights and EMBL’s continuing role.

2015

alumni

29 April 2015

Element of surprise

Science Radiocarbon studies are helping researchers shine light on how neurons stay stable yet adaptable.

2015

science

6 April 2015

Bypassing errors

Science Coin toss inspires CorMap: a new statistical test that sidesteps need for error estimation.

2015

science

16 March 2015

No humans required

Science New fully automated technique enables scientists to chart complex protein networks in living cells.

2015

science

4 March 2015 Where and when are different molecules contributing to the bending of the membrane? IMAGE: EMBL/A. Picco

Best of three worlds

Science Combining three different kinds of microscopy to determine how molecules move during endocytosis.

2015

science

25 February 2015 The team used computer simulations to investigate the mitotic spindle's strength. IMAGE: EMBL/F. NÉDÉLEC

Under pressure

Science How strong does a spindle need to be? Videos put cell’s chromosome-separating machinery to the test

2015

science

16 February 2015

Fight or flight?

Events EMBL Insight Lecture – Why do we do what we do? – now available to view online.

2015

events

6 February 2015 A new way mice keep iron (purple) out of reach of pathogens. IMAGE FROM GUIDA et al. BLOOD 2015

The battle for iron

Science New way mice starve pathogens raises alternative approach to treatments for anaemia of chronic disease

2015

science

4 February 2015 The new method helps identify which mutations to a gene actually cause a disease. IMAGE FROM THORMAEHLEN ET AL.

Beyond sequencing

Science New microscopy-based method goes beyond gene sequencing, pinpointing the cause of disease.

2015

science

28 January 2015 Barcoding enables scientists to search for epigenetics tags in many samples at once. IMAGE: MANUEL (CC BY 2.0)

Barcoding epigenetics

Science New Bar-ChIP method makes it easier to search for epigenetic marks in many samples at once

2015

science

27 January 2015 Building blocks TAF8 (blue), TAF10 (green) and TAF2 (not shown) form a module in the cytoplasm before entering the nucleus to form TFIID. IMAGE: EMBL/I.BERGER

Come together

Science First experimental proof that a key cellular machine forms by uniting pre-assembled modules.

2015

science

26 January 2015

Awards & Honours

Lab Matters EMBL scientists regularly receive prestigious awards – meet the latest honourees.

2015

lab-matters

26 January 2015

Light years ahead

Science As EMBL Hamburg celebrates 40 years, we explore the past, present and future of crystallography.

2015

science

26 January 2015 ILLUSTRATION: AAD GOUDAPPEL

Cell control in a flash

Science From using light to control brain activity to illuminating fruit fly development and mice’s sense of touch

2015

science

23 January 2015 Silvia Rohr. PHOTO: EMBL PHOTOLAB/MARIETTA SCHUPP

Let there be light

Lab Matters PhD student Silvia Rohr on studying eyes – and talking about it for a general audience.

2015

lab-matters

20 January 2015 COMPARE project

Beyond COMPARE

Lab Matters New project aims to speed up detection and response to disease outbreaks using genome technology.

2015

lab-matters

18 December 2014

Alumni awards

Alumni Announcing winners of the John Kendrew Young Scientist Award, and inaugural Lennart Philipson Award.

2014

alumni

11 December 2014

Lighting the way

Events EMBL Hamburg celebrates four decades of vision, pioneering research and beamline services.

2014

events

9 December 2014 A bundle of nerves that relays information from touch receptors on the skin to the spinal cord and ultimately the brain, imaged with the new technique. IMAGE: EMBL/L.CASTALDI

Delighting in detail

Science Unprecedented detail in images of mouse neurons thanks to new SNAP-tagging microscopy technique.

2014

science

5 December 2014

Four decades at EMBL

Alumni Employee number 47 retires, leaving behind a legacy that intricately linked her life with EMBL.

2014

alumni

28 November 2014

MASSIF step forward

Science In two months, 2.3 million diffraction images collected on new, fully automated ESRF/EMBL beamline.

2014

science

21 November 2014

Big biology, big success

Events EMBL-EBI supports Big Biology Day, inspiring 500 youngsters with jelly-baby DNA and golf-tee viruses.

2014

events

19 November 2014

20 years in the making

Science First complete picture of flu virus polymerase. A story of two decades of blood, sweat and sneezes.

2014

science

19 November 2014

Foods are us!

Events Appetite to ZzZzZzZ… bite-sized highlights from this year’s Science and Society conference.

2014

events

18 November 2014 Kyung-Min Noh. PHOTO: EMBL/M.SCHUPP

Welcome: Kyung-Min Noh

Science The important thing is forming good biological questions, says new group leader in Genome Biology.

2014

science

18 November 2014

On a SAXS quest

Events Course attendees go hunting (protein) aliens in a quest for optimal SAXS data.

2014

events

17 November 2014 Judith Zaugg. PHOTO: EMBL/M. SCHUPP

Welcome: Judith Zaugg

Science Whether it’s information or people, the art of connecting is key to new group leader Judith Zaugg

2014

science

11 November 2014

Polish connections

Alumni Alumna Anna Bartosik shares insights and hopes for EMBL's newest prospect member state, Poland.

2014

alumni

4 November 2014 EMPIAR logo

Building an EMPIAR

Science EMPIAR lets researchers take a closer look at the images used to build 3D molecular structures.

2014

science

3 November 2014

Witamy! EMBL welcomes Poland as prospect member state

Events In a Statement of Intent signed this month, Poland becomes a prospect member state of EMBL, and the new partners agree to explore possibilities for long-term cooperation, with a view to the country becoming a full member state within three years. “Poland has a strong and active life science…

2014

events

23 October 2014

Chamber of secrets

Science Like sports teams, cells can huddle to communicate in secret and organise group behaviour

2014

science

21 October 2014 Map of EMBL-EBI users

Job dispatched

Lab Matters How does EMBL-EBI run millions of jobs for its users while moving its two large data centres?

2014

lab-matters

20 October 2014

Breaking boundaries

Science How Nobel-winning work by alumnus Stefan Hell shapes and inspires current EMBL scientists' research.

2014

science

17 October 2014 Five-armed starfish

Superstars of science

Science From anemones to starfish, sea creatures are helping understand development, evolution and more.

2014

science

17 October 2014

A toast to EMBL

Events German Science Minister and other honoured guests celebrate 40 years of ‘Learning from life’.

2014

events

17 October 2014

Witness to history

Alumni EMBL Alumna Frieda Glöckner looks back more than four decades to where it all began.

2014

alumni

8 October 2014

EU Codefest

Events Pooling programming and problem-solving expertise in bioinformatics at EMBL-EBI.

2014

events

6 October 2014

Hungary joins EMBL as prospect member state

Events The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) welcomes Hungary as its newest prospect member state. In a Statement of Intent signed this month, Hungary and EMBL agree to explore possibilities for long-term cooperation, with a view to the country becoming a full member state within three years.…

2014

events

15 September 2014

Obituary: Stephen Fuller

Alumni Stephen Fuller, from 1981–2000 an EMBL postdoc, group leader then Head of Unit, died on 25 August.

2014

alumni

10 September 2014 RNAcentral launched

RNAcentral Station

Science RNAcentral is the first unified resource for all types of non-coding RNA data.

2014

science

21 August 2014

Drawing on nature

Events PhD Symposium poster reveals how a cell’s inner workings serve as both inspiration and toolkit.

2014

events

20 August 2014

Binding bracelet

Science Vasa protein preserves pieces of 'enemy' DNA to help protect the genes of future generations.

2014

science

6 August 2014

Clarity in the cold

Science How fruit flies beat the cold, plus the value of precisely controlled experiments and detailed analysis

2014

science

31 July 2014 Global Alliance for Genomics and Health

New genomics API

Lab Matters New genomics API allows researchers to share anonymised genetic data seamlessly across platforms.

2014

lab-matters

31 July 2014 Speakers, session chairs and special guests from Austria and abroad, with past and present links to EMBO and EMBL, unite at EMBanniversary celebration. PHOTO: CeMM

EMBanniversary AUSTRIA

Alumni Celebrating 50 years of EMBO, 40 years of EMBL and the success of molecular biology in Austria

2014

alumni

8 July 2014 Head of EMBL Monterotondo, Philip Avner, makes a toast.

Buon Compleanno!

Alumni EMBL Monterotondo celebrates double anniversary with fun, fireworks, festa and familiar faces

2014

alumni

1 July 2014 Vasily Sysoev

Back to school

Lab Matters School ambassadors show next generation that scientists are more ‘role model’ than ‘mad professor’

2014

lab-matters

1 July 2014

In our DNA

Lab Matters To photographer Horst Hamann, it's the people, not the science, that make EMBL unique

2014

lab-matters

1 July 2014

Resourceful alumni

Alumni Two EMBL alumni, each developing community-led tools to support life science research

2014

alumni

1 July 2014

For the record

Alumni New EMBL Archive will serve as a record of accomplishments, past, present and future

2014

alumni

1 July 2014 Illustration: Aad Goudappel, Rotterdam

Five for the future

Lab Matters Scientists from EMBL's five sites reflect on the opportunities and challenges that might lie ahead

2014

lab-matters

1 July 2014 Question mark

Q&A

Lab Matters Which scientific breakthroughs would EMBL scientists most like to see in the next 40 years?

2014

lab-matters

1 July 2014 Alumna Siyi Zhang celebrates completing a 12.4K race in San Francisco

Getting shirty

Alumni Staff and alumni around the world get active in EMBL running shirts to celebrate our anniversary

2014

alumni

25 June 2014

On target

Connections, Lab Matters A new EMBL-EBI biomedical initiative works to determine the best target proteins for new drugs.

2014

connectionslab-matters

10 June 2014

Czech Republic becomes EMBL’s 21st member state

Connections, Events Forty years after its foundation, EMBL announces its 21st member state: the Czech Republic. Building on a successful bilateral relationship, the Czech Republic’s membership grants Czech scientists access to EMBL’s state-of-the-art instruments, facilities and world-class training…

2014

connectionsevents

22 April 2014

Argentina joins EMBL as associate member state

Connections, Events At a signing ceremony today, Argentina joins the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) as an associate member state. The move strengthens the ties between the European and Latin American life science communities. It grants Argentinian scientists access to EMBL’s world-class facilities and…

2014

connectionsevents

27 March 2014

Where do you start when developing a new medicine?

Connections, Lab Matters A pioneering public-private research initiative between GSK, the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is to harness the power of ‘big data’ and genome sequencing to improve the success rate for discovering new medicines. The new Centre for…

2014

connectionslab-matters

7 March 2014

Slovak Republic becomes EMBL Prospect Member State

Connections, Events The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) welcomes the Slovak Republic as the first country to join its new Prospect Member scheme. In a Statement of Intent signed last month, the Slovak Republic and EMBL agree to explore the possibilities for long-term cooperation, with a view to the…

2014

connectionsevents

24 February 2014

Pan-European imaging infrastructure gains momentum

Connections, Lab Matters Europe is uniting to make state-of-the-art imaging technologies accessible to biomedical researchers throughout the continent in a concerted manner. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and seven countries (Belgium, Finland, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom)…

2014

connectionslab-matters

2 February 2014

Making your brain social

Science, Science & Technology In many people with autism and other neurodevelopmental disorders, different parts of the brain don’t talk to each other very well. Scientists have now identified, for the first time, a way in which this decreased functional connectivity can come about. In a study published online today…

2014

sciencescience-technology

10 November 2013

What are you scared of?

Science, Science & Technology What do bullies and sex have in common? Based on work by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, it seems that the same part of the brain reacts to both. In a study published today in Nature Neuroscience, the researchers found that – at least in…

2013

sciencescience-technology

23 October 2013

Bigger, better, faster

Science, Science & Technology The molecular machine that makes essential components of ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories – is like a Swiss-army knife, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas in Madrid, Spain, have found.…

2013

sciencescience-technology

13 October 2013

Choreographed origami

Science, Science & Technology An important step in building ribosomes – the cell’s protein factories – is like a strictly choreographed dance, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have discovered. To build these factories, other ‘machines’ inside the cell have to…

2013

sciencescience-technology

25 September 2013

Without a trace

Science, Science & Technology Migrating cells, it seems, cover their tracks not for fear of being followed, but to keep moving forward. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have now shown that cells in a zebrafish embryo determine which direction they move in by effectively…

2013

sciencescience-technology

12 September 2013

Potential new drug target for cystic fibrosis

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and Regensburg University, both in Germany, and the University of Lisboa, in Portugal, have discovered a promising potential drug target for cystic fibrosis. Their work, published online today in Cell, also uncovers a…

2013

sciencescience-technology

11 August 2013

From fireman to arsonist

Science, Science & Technology Like a fireman who becomes an arsonist, a protein that prevents cells becoming cancerous can also cause tumours, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, have discovered. The finding, published today in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology, stems…

2013

sciencescience-technology

11 August 2013

PS: It’s not cholesterol

Science, Science & Technology How our body processes cholesterol has a well-known impact on our health, but it turns out that another ‘fat molecule’ – or lipid – may be at the heart of some diseases which were thought to involve cholesterol. A group of proteins linked to conditions such as metabolic syndrome and some…

2013

sciencescience-technology

7 August 2013

Cells eat themselves into shape

Science, Science & Technology The process cells use to ‘swallow’ up nutrients, hormones and other signals from their environment – called endocytosis – can play a crucial role in shaping the cells themselves, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. The study,…

2013

sciencescience-technology

11 July 2013

How to build your gate

Science, Science & Technology It’s a parent’s nightmare: opening a Lego set and being faced with 500 pieces, but no instructions on how to assemble them into the majestic castle shown on the box. Thanks to a new approach by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany,…

2013

sciencescience-technology

14 May 2013

But what does it do?

Science, Science & Technology Although we know the tool’s general purpose, it can sometimes be difficult to tell if a specific pair of precision tweezers belongs to a surgeon or a master jeweller. It is now easier to solve similar conundrums about a type of protein that allows cells to react to their environment, thanks to…

2013

sciencescience-technology

24 April 2013

Pushing the boundaries of transcription

Science, Science & Technology Like musicians in an orchestra who have the same musical score but start and finish playing at different intervals, cells with the same genes start and finish transcribing them at different points in the genome. For the first time, researchers at EMBL have described the striking diversity of…

2013

sciencescience-technology

27 March 2013

Become a member of Euro-BioImaging

Connections, Lab Matters Euro-BioImaging, the pan-European open access research infrastructure for biological and medical imaging technologies, invites leading European imaging facilities to submit proposals to participate. Applications to become a Euro-BioImaging node will be reviewed by a board of independent…

2013

connectionslab-matters

11 March 2013

Havoc in biology’s most-used human cell line

Science, Science & Technology HeLa cells are the world’s most commonly used human cell lines, and have served as a standard for understanding many fundamental biological processes. In a study published today in G3: Genes, Genomes and Genetics online, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in…

2013

sciencescience-technology

28 February 2013

DNA’s twisted communication

Science, Science & Technology During embryo development, genes are dynamically, and very precisely, switched on and off to confer different properties to different cells and build a well-proportioned and healthy animal. Fgf8 is one of the key genes in this process, controlling in particular the growth of the limbs and…

2013

sciencescience-technology

28 February 2013

Zeroing in on heart disease

Science, Science & Technology Studies screening the genome of hundreds of thousands of individuals (known as Genome-wide association studies or GWAS) have linked more than 100 regions in the genome to the risk of developing cardiovascular disease. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the…

2013

sciencescience-technology

11 February 2013

One disease, two mechanisms

Science, Science & Technology While prostate cancer is the most common cancer in elderly Western men it also, but more rarely, strikes patients aged between 35 and 50. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in collaboration with several other research teams in Germany*, have…

2013

sciencescience-technology

4 February 2013

Learning from the linker

Science, Science & Technology Mature cells can be reprogrammed to pluripotency and thus regain the ability to divide and differentiate into specialized cell types. Although these so-called induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS cells) represent a milestone in stem cell research, many of the biochemical processes that underlie…

2013

sciencescience-technology

31 January 2013

The mutation police

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in the UK have discovered how our genome keeps the effects of mutations in check. The discovery, published in the journal Cell, will help in the study of diseases such as cancer and…

2013

sciencescience-technology

23 January 2013

EMBL-EBI researchers make DNA storage a reality

Science, Science & Technology Researchers at the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have created a way to store data in the form of DNA – a material that lasts for tens of thousands of years. The new method, published today in the journal Nature, makes it possible to store at least 100 million hours of…

2013

sciencescience-technology

17 January 2013

The cell that isn’t

Science, Science & Technology This may look like yet another video of a dividing cell, but there’s a catch. You are looking at chromosomes (red) being pulled apart by the mitotic spindle (green), but it’s not a cell, because there’s no cell membrane. Like a child sucking an egg out of its shell, Ivo Telley from the…

2013

sciencescience-technology

6 January 2013

Protein production: going viral

Science, Science & Technology A research team of scientists from EMBL Grenoble and the IGBMC in Strasbourg, France, have, for the first time, described in molecular detail the architecture of the central scaffold of TFIID: the human protein complex essential for transcription from DNA to mRNA. The study, published today…

2013

sciencescience-technology

19 December 2012

Sync to grow

Science, Science & Technology Gene expression wave in the lower part of the future vertebrae column of a mammalian embryo. As the wave goes forward, new pre-vertebrae are formed and the future vertebrae column elongates. (Image and video credit: Nature) In a nutshell: The size of pre-vertebrae in a mammalian embryo is…

2012

sciencescience-technology

5 December 2012

My microbes

Science, Science & Technology In a nutshell : The gut metagenome is the collection of all the genomes of all the microbes  in the human intestinal tract : it is specific to each human, like a second genetic signature At least in healthy humans, this personal metagenome is stable over time The gut metagenome is…

2012

sciencescience-technology

31 October 2012

Spot the difference

Science, Science & Technology In a nutshell: 1st map combining human genetic variation at different scales – from single letters to large chunks Based on genomes of 1092 healthy people from Europe, the Americas and East Asia Could help identify genetic causes of disease, rather than just links Data made freely available in…

2012

sciencescience-technology

27 September 2012 Diagram showing looping DNA

Loop the loop, DNA style

Science, Science & Technology In a nutshell: Looping and unlooping DNA adjusts readout from gene and spread of regulation throughout the genome When a gene forms a loop, its output increases, as the transcription machinery that reads it is trapped into moving only along that gene When the gene loop is undone, transcription…

2012

sciencescience-technology

23 September 2012 Cartoon showing cell communication

Cellular eavesdropping made easy

Science, Science & Technology In a nutshell: New method allows precise analysis of proteins released by cells over time (distinguishes them from proteins in the cells’ culture serum) Advantages: cells don’t have to be starved: avoids bias and allows more cell types to be studied; can follow fast reactions like immune…

2012

sciencescience-technology

5 September 2012 ENCODE researchers found that most of our DNA has a function: controlling when and where genes are turned on and off.

Fast forward for biomedical research

Science, Science & Technology Today, an international team of researchers reveal that much of what has been called ‘junk DNA’ in the human genome is actually a massive control panel with millions of switches regulating the activity of our genes. Without these switches, genes would not work – and mutations in these regions…

2012

sciencescience-technology

3 August 2012

How the cell swallows

Science, Technology and innovation Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have combined the power of two kinds of microscope to produce a 3-dimensional movie of how cells ‘swallow’ nutrients and other molecules by engulfing them. The study, published today in Cell, is the…

2012

sciencetechnology-and-innovation

2 August 2012 Different inhibitors (yellow, grey) fill the cave-like active site of the cap-snatching protein (the endonuclease, in green) differently, even though they all bind to the active site’s two metal ions (magenta).

Catching the cap-snatcher

Science, Science & Technology Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, have determined the detailed 3-dimensional structure of part of the flu virus’ RNA polymerase, an enzyme that is crucial for influenza virus replication. This important finding is published today in PLoS…

2012

sciencescience-technology

19 July 2012 The female (left) fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, is larger than the male (right). Image credit: EMBL.

Of flies and men

Science, Science & Technology What do you get when you dissect 10 000 fruit-fly larvae? A team of researchers led by the EMBL- European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in the UK and the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology and Epigenetics (MPI) in Germany has discovered a way in which cells can adjust the activity of many…

2012

sciencescience-technology

12 July 2012

Italy pledges to be part of ELIXIR research infrastructure

Connections, Science Italy has pledged to participate in ELIXIR, a major undertaking to safeguard the results of life science research in Europe. With one of Europe’s larger economies now demonstrating its commitment to ELIXIR, this burgeoning research infrastructure is well placed to continue its excellent progress.…

2012

connectionsscience

5 July 2012

Stop and go

Science, Science & Technology A traffic policeman standing at a busy intersection directing the flow of vehicles may be a rare sight these days, but a similar scene appears to still frequently play out in our cells. A protein called Lem4 directs a crucial step of cell division by preventing the progress of one molecule while…

2012

sciencescience-technology

21 June 2012

Flu fighters

Science, Science & Technology Savira pharmaceuticals GmbH, a spin-off of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) based in Vienna, Austria, has signed a collaboration and license agreement with Roche, thus further strengthening the links between fundamental research and major pharmaceutical development companies. This…

2012

sciencescience-technology

3 June 2012

Shape-shifting shell

Science, Science & Technology As a retrovirus matures, the two parts of its shell protein (red and blue or yellow and blue) dramatically rearrange themselves, twisting and moving away from each other. (Credit: EMBL/T.Bharat) Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have for the…

2012

sciencescience-technology

3 June 2012

Video Release: Filming life in the fast lane

Science, Science & Technology “This video shows a fruit fly embryo from when it was about two-and-a-half hours old until it walked away from the microscope as a larva, 20 hours later,” says Lars Hufnagel, from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. “It shows all the hallmarks of fruit fly…

2012

sciencescience-technology

3 June 2012 Silenced genes in a cell

Export extravaganza

Science, Science & Technology Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have conducted the first comprehensive census of human cells’ export workers. In a study published online today in Nature Cell Biology, they found an unexpected variety of genes involved in transporting…

2012

sciencescience-technology

31 May 2012 Word cloud of proteins

The cell’s ‘New World’

Science, Science & Technology In one of the most famous faux pas of exploration, Columbus set sail for India and instead ‘discovered’ America. Similarly, when scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, set out to find enzymes – the proteins that carry out chemical…

2012

sciencescience-technology

24 May 2012 Cell vesicles serve as transport pods to ferry cargo around the cell.

Picture Release: More than meets the eye

Picture of the week, Science & Technology These spheres may look almost identical, but subtle differences between them revealed a molecular version of the robots from Transformers. Each sphere is a vesicle, a pod that cells use to transport materials between different compartments. The images, produced by Marco Faini from John…

2012

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

24 May 2012 Microglial cells

Locating ground zero

Science, Science & Technology Like emergency workers rushing to a disaster scene, cells called microglia speed to places where the brain has been injured, to contain the damage by ‘eating up’ any cellular debris and dead or dying neurons. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany,…

2012

sciencescience-technology

22 April 2012 Abstract image showing DNA code

A matter of priorities

Science, Science & Technology Just as banks store away only the most valuable possessions in the most secure safes, cells prioritise which genes they guard most closely, researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have found. The study, published online today…

2012

sciencescience-technology

20 March 2012 A slice through the tails of mouse sperm.

Picture release: Spring tails

Picture of the week, Science & Technology As spring arrives, flowers seem to bloom everywhere – even under the microscopes at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. But the ‘flowers’ in this picture actually help an animal, not a plant, to pass on its genes. The image, which has been false-coloured…

2012

picture-of-the-weekscience-technology

18 March 2012

Need for speed

Science, Science & Technology Like any law-abiding train passenger, a molecule called oskar RNA carries a stamped ticket detailing its destination and form of transport, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found. They show that for this molecule, moving in the…

2012

sciencescience-technology

1 March 2012

Flying high in Europe

Science, Science & Technology Today a consortium of leading IT providers and three of Europe’s biggest research centres (CERN, EMBL and ESA) announced a partnership to launch a European cloud computing platform. ‘Helix Nebula ‐ the Science Cloud’, will support the massive IT requirements of European…

2012

sciencescience-technology

28 February 2012

Making the most of what you have

Science, Science & Technology The bacterium Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes atypical pneumonia, is helping scientists uncover how cells make the most of limited resources. By measuring all the proteins this bacterium produces, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and…

2012

sciencescience-technology

19 February 2012 Diagram of the Elongator protein

Trapped in a ring

Science, Science & Technology In fairy tales, magic rings endow their owners with special abilities: the ring makes the wearer invisible, fulfils his wishes, or otherwise helps the hero on the path to his destiny.  Similarly, a ring-like structure found in a protein complex called ‘Elongator’ has led researchers at the…

2012

sciencescience-technology

14 February 2012

Stretching helices help keep muscles together

Science, Science & Technology Myomesin stretching to 2.5 times its length. Credit: EMBL/Wilmanns. In this video, a protein called myomesin does its impression of Mr. Fantastic, the leader of the Fantastic Four of comic book fame, who performed incredible feats by stretching his body. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology…

2012

sciencescience-technology

2 February 2012 Fruit fly embryo showing the cells that will become the gut and heart

Collective action

Science, Science & Technology If you wanted to draw your family tree, you could start by searching for people who share your surname. Cells, of course, don’t have surnames, but scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have found that genetic switches called enhancers, and the…

2012

sciencescience-technology

19 January 2012 Artist's impression of a chromosome exploding

Rigged to explode?

Science, Science & Technology An inherited mutation in a gene known as the guardian of the genome is likely the link between exploding chromosomes and some particularly aggressive types of cancer, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ) and the University…

2012

sciencescience-technology

12 January 2012

Evolution by ‘copy-paste’

Science, Science & Technology A team of geneticists and computational biologists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and Cancer Research UK reveal how an ancient mechanism is involved in gene control and continues to drive genome…

2012

sciencescience-technology

8 January 2012 Diagram of chromatin enhancers

Tracking genes’ remote controls

Science, Science & Technology As an embryo develops, different genes are turned on in different cells, to form muscles, neurons and other bodily parts. Inside each cell’s nucleus, genetic sequences known as enhancers act like remote controls, switching genes on and off. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory…

2012

sciencescience-technology

13 October 2011 In the absence of viral RNA (top), the part of RIG-I that senses viral RNA is exposed (orange), whilst the domains responsible for signalling (blue and pink) are out of reach of the signalling machinery. When RIG-I detects viral RNA, it changes shape (bottom), and the signalling domains become accessible to sound the alarm.

Intruder detected: raise the alarm!

Science When a thief breaks into a bank vault, sensors are activated and the alarm is raised. Cells have their own early-warning system for intruders, and scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, have discovered how a particular protein sounds that alarm when it…

2011

science

18 August 2011 Circling chromosomes. Chromosomes (blue) form a ‘belt’ around the centre of the spindle (green), discovered by the EMBL scientists.

Fishing games gone wrong

Science When an egg cell is being formed, the cellular machinery which separates chromosomes is extremely imprecise at fishing them out of the cell’s interior, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have discovered. The unexpected degree of trial-and-error…

2011

science

7 August 2011 The new microscope that developed by scientists at EMBL, which can follow single molecules by the millisecond Credit: EMBL/H.Neves.

Live from the scene: biochemistry in action

Science Researchers can now watch molecules move in living cells, literally millisecond by millisecond, thanks to a new microscope developed by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Published online today in Nature Biotechnology, the new technique provides…

2011

science

21 July 2011 Microglia (green) in a mouse brain. The nuclei of all cells in the brain are labelled blue. Credit: EMBL/ R.Paolicelli

Gardening in the brain

Science Gardeners know that some trees require regular pruning: some of their branches have to be cut so that others can grow stronger. The same is true of the developing brain: cells called microglia prune the connections between neurons, shaping how the brain is wired, scientists at the European…

2011

science

21 July 2011 Model of the inner ring (green) of the nuclear pore, showing its components.

A hot species for cool structures

Science A fungus that lives at extremely high temperatures could help understand structures within our own cells. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University, both in Heidelberg, Germany, were the first to sequence and analyse the genome of a heat-loving fungus,…

2011

science

5 July 2011 Lennart Philipson, 1929-2011.

Obituary – Lennart Philipson

Lab Matters Lennart Philipson, who served as EMBL’s second Director General, has passed away. Lennart headed EMBL for over a decade between 1982-93, a crucial time for molecular biology when different scientific disciplines in the life sciences were becoming increasingly interlinked. He reorganised the…

2011

lab-matters

17 June 2011 Condensin loops around several strands of DNA, keeping it coiled up and easier to transport. (Artistic impression) Image credits: EMBL/ P. Riedinger

Keeping it together

Science As any rock-climber knows, trailing a long length of rope behind you is not easy. A dangling length of rope is unwieldy and hard to manoeuvre, and can get tangled up or stuck on an outcropping. Cells face the same problem when dragging chromosomes apart during cell division. The chromosomes are…

2011

science

20 April 2011 Artistic impression of the 3 human gut types.

What’s your gut type?

Science In the future, when you walk into a doctor’s surgery or hospital, you could be asked not just about your allergies and blood group, but also about your gut type. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and collaborators in the international MetaHIT…

2011

science

20 March 2011

The informant: a jumping gene

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method for studying gene regulation, by employing a jumping gene as an informant. Published online today in Nature Genetics, the new method is called GROMIT. It enables researchers to…

2011

science

11 March 2011

Small code change, big effect

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method which enables researchers to label any protein of their choice with any of a wide variety of previously available compounds, in living cells, by introducing a single reactive…

2011

science

6 March 2011 By silencing genes two at a time in cells like these, the scientists can analyse the genes’ combined effects. In this microscopy image of human cells, nuclei are shown in red, cell membranes in green, and the cellular scaffolding in blue.

Suggesting genes’ friends, facebook-style

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the German Cancer Research Centre (DKFZ), both in Heidelberg, Germany, have developed a new method that uncovers the combined effects of genes. Published online today in Nature Methods, it helps understand how different genes can…

2011

science

4 March 2011 Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, and Iain Mattaj, Director-General of EMBL, signing the Memorandum of Understanding.

European Commission and EMBL renew cooperation

Lab Matters In a Memorandum of Understanding signed today, the European Commission (EC) and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) formalise their desire to maintain and further develop their cooperation. “I am delighted to sign the renewed and strengthened Memorandum of Understanding between the…

2011

lab-matters

14 February 2011 3D structure of Mycobacterium tuberculosis’ enzyme PriA

Two in one

Science In a paper published online today in PNAS, scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, reveal new insights into the workings of enzymes from a group of bacteria including Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. The new findings…

2011

science

3 February 2011

Blood-clotting protein linked to cancer and septicaemia

Science In our not-so-distant evolutionary past, stress often meant imminent danger, and the risk of blood loss, so part of our body’s stress response is to stock-pile blood-clotting factors. Scientists in the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU), a collaboration between the European Molecular…

2011

science

2 February 2011

The human genome’s breaking points

Science A detailed analysis of data from 185 human genomes sequenced in the course of the 1000 Genomes Project, by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in collaboration with researchers at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge, UK, as well as the…

2011

science

23 January 2011 Micropilot detected cells at particular stages of cell division

Intelligent microscopy

Science The sight of a researcher sitting at a microscope for hours, painstakingly searching for the right cells, may soon be a thing of the past, thanks to new software created by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Presented today in Nature Methods, the…

2011

science

12 December 2010 This cryo-electron microscopy image shows the 3D structure of the ribosome (yellow/blue) bound to the signal recognition particle (SRP) and the SRP receptor (both in red). Below it is an atomic model of SRP (green-yellow/orange) and its receptor (pink). Image credits: EMBL/Schaffitzel.

How cells export and embed proteins in the membrane

Science Like an overprotective parent on the first day of school, a targeting factor sometimes needs a little push to let go of its cargo. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Grenoble, France, have visualised one such hand-over. They were the first to determine the structure…

2010

science

2 December 2010 Euro-BioImaging will provide open access to state-of-the-art biological imaging techniques like fluorescence microscopy, which produced this snapshot of chromosomes (blue) being pulled apart in a dividing egg. Image credits: EMBL/ T. Kitajima

Better imaging from bench to bedside

Science From microscopy to computer tomography (CT) scans, imaging plays an important role in biological and biomedical research, but obtaining high-quality images often requires advanced technology and expertise, and can be costly. Euro-BioImaging, a project which launches its preparatory phase today,…

2010

science

16 November 2010

One-touch make-up – for our cells

Science The cells in the different parts of this video are always the same (grey), but, like actors using make-up to highlight different facial features, they have fluorescent labels that mark different cellular components in different colours: blue shows the nucleus, yellow shows tubulin (a component of…

2010

science

8 November 2010 Signing the declaration of accession to the EIROforum: Massimo Altarelli, Chairman of the XFEL Management Board (left) and Francesco Romanelli, Chairman of the EIROforum (right). In the back (left to right): Francesco Sette (ESRF), Felicitas Pauss (CERN), Iain Mattaj (EMBL), Richard Wagner (ILL), Rowena Sirey (ESO) and David Southwood (ESA)

European XFEL joins EIROforum

Lab Matters At the Autumn 2010Council meeting of the EIROforum, a partnership of seven European intergovernmental research organisations with large research infrastructures, the Directors General unanimously accepted the European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser Facility (European XFEL), based in Hamburg, Germany, to…

2010

lab-matters

27 October 2010

1000 Genomes Project ushers in new era for human genetics

Science The 1000 Genomes Project, a major international collaboration to build a detailed map of human genetic variation, has completed its pilot phase. The results are now published in the journal Nature and freely available through the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics…

2010

science

2 September 2010 A virtual Platynereis brain (left), created by averaging microscopy images of the brains of 36 different individuals, onto which scientists mapped gene activity (right). Perspective shows the brain as viewed from inside a Platynereis larvae, at 48 hours' old. Image credits: EMBL/R. Tomer

Brainy worms: Evolution of the cerebral cortex

Science Our cerebral cortex, or pallium, is a big part of what makes us human: art, literature and science would not exist had this most fascinating part of our brain not emerged in some less intelligent ancestor in prehistoric times. But when did this occur and what were these ancestors? Unexpectedly,…

2010

science

25 August 2010

Freeze or run? Not that simple

Science Fear can make you run, it can make you fight, and it can glue you to the spot. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy and GlaxoSmithKline in Verona, Italy, have identified not only the part of the brain but the specific type of neurons that determine…

2010

science

5 August 2010

Constant overlap

Science During cell division, microtubules emanating from each of the spindle poles meet and overlap in the spindle’s midzone. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, have uncovered the molecular mechanism that determines the extent of this overlap. In a…

2010

science

3 August 2010 These electron microscopy images show mitochondria in a normal cell (top) and a close-up of a mitochondrion with structural defects, in a cell that cannot produce IRPs (bottom). Image credits: Bruno Galy/ EMBL

Supply and demand

Science Most organisms need iron to survive, but too much iron is toxic, and can cause fatal organ failure. The same is true inside cells, where iron balance must also be maintained. In a study published today in Cell Metabolism, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg,…

2010

science

4 July 2010 The Fly Digital Embryo at different developmental stages, with cell nuclei coloured according to how fast they were moving (from blue for the slowest to orange for the fastest). The fruit fly embryo is magnified around 250 times. IMAGE: Philipp Keller

Digital Embryo gains wings

Science The scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, who ‘fathered’ the Digital Embryo have now given it wings, creating the Fly Digital Embryo. In work published today in Nature Methods, they were able to capture fruit fly development on film, and were the…

2010

science

24 June 2010 These microscopy images show that a protein from the NSL complex (green) and MOF (red) both bind to all chromosomes in male (right) and female (left) fruit flies - overlap is shown in purple. On the male X chromosome, MOF binds not only to promoter regions but also to the body of the genes, generating a brighter signal (pink). Image credits: Akhtar/EMBL.

A life-changing partnership

Science Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the Max-Planck Institute of Immunobiology Freiburg have identified a novel protein complex that regulates around 4000 genes in the fruit fly Drosophila and likely plays an important role in mammals, too.…

2010

science

31 May 2010 This microscopy image shows that, in a mouse embryo, MiR451 (dark purple) is produced only in the liver, where red blood cells are being formed at this developmental stage. Image credits: Kasper Rasmussen/EMBL

Making enough red blood cells

Science Red blood cells, the delivery men that take oxygen to cells all around the body, have short lives. To keep enough of them in circulation, the human body produces around 2 million of these cells every second – even more in response to challenges like severe blood loss. In a study published today…

2010

science

2 May 2010 These microscopy images show the region of the embryo larva that will develop into the adult fruit fly’s wing. In cells genetically manipulated so that PR-DUB cannot remove the gene-silencing tag (left), a gene which would normally be silenced becomes turned on (red) - a situation which is corrected when PR-DUB’s activity is restored (right). Image credits: J.Mueller/EMBL.

Tags on, tags off

Science During embryonic development, proteins called Polycomb group complexes turn genes off when and where their activity must not be present, preventing specialised tissues and organs from forming in the wrong places. They also play an important role in processes like stem cell differentiation and…

2010

science

8 April 2010 This image shows the 5,372 samples as dots colour-coded for the six major clusters identified by comparing gene expression profiles. The left and right panels of the figure are projections of the same three-dimensional shape viewed from two different perspectives. Image credit: Brazma / EMBL.

Variations on the genetic theme

Science Just like members of an orchestra are active at different times although playing the same piece of music, every cell in our body contains the same genetic sequence but expresses this differently to give rise to cells and tissues with specialised properties. By integrating gene expression data from…

2010

science

1 April 2010 Each of these large images of dividing cells is composed of several microscopy images of human cells in which different individual genes were silenced. The smaller images are placed according to genes’ effects: images for genes that affect chromosomes make up the chromosomes (red/pink), while the mitotic spindle (green) is composed of images for genes that affect it. IMAGE: Thomas Walter & Mayumi Isokane / EMBL

Movies for the human genome

Science Name a human gene, and you’ll find a movie online showing you what happens to cells when it is switched off. This is the resource that researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and their collaborators in the Mitocheck consortium are making freely…

2010

science

18 March 2010

What makes us unique? Not only our genes

Science Once the human genome was sequenced in 2001, the hunt was on for the genes that make each of us unique. But scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and Yale and Stanford Universities in the USA, have found that we differ from each other mainly because…

2010

science

4 March 2010

Bacterial balance that keeps us healthy

Science The thousands of bacteria, fungi and other microbes that live in our gut are essential contributors to our good health. They break down toxins, manufacture some vitamins and essential amino acids, and form a barrier against invaders. A study published today in Nature shows that, at 3.3 million,…

2010

science

31 January 2010

MicroRNA: a glimpse into the past

Science The last ancestor we shared with worms, which roamed the seas around 600 million years ago, may already have had a sophisticated brain that released hormones into the blood and was connected to various sensory organs. The evidence comes not from a newly found fossil but from the study of microRNAs…

2010

science

26 January 2010 This image shows the three-dimensional structure of Death-Associated Protein Kinase (green and yellow) when bound to calmodulin (violet and blue). It was obtained by X-ray crystallography. Image credit: Mathias Wilmanns / EMBL

How to shoot the messenger

Science Cells rely on a range of signalling systems to communicate with each other and to control their own internal workings. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Hamburg, Germany, have now found a way to hack into a vital communications system, raising the possibility of…

2010

science

19 January 2010 Image credit: Rachel Melwig & Christine Panagiotidis / EMBL

Membrane-coat proteins: bacteria have them too

Science Although they are present almost everywhere, on land and sea, a group of related bacteria in the superphylum Planctomycetes-Verrucomicrobia-Chlamydiae, or PVC, have remained in relative obscurity ever since they were first described about a decade ago. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology…

2010

science

18 January 2010

Open access drug discovery database launches with half a million compounds

Science ChEMBLdb, a vast online database of information on the properties and activities of drugs and drug-like small molecules and their targets, launches today with information on over half a million compounds. The data lie at the heart of translating information from the human genome into successful new…

2010

science

10 December 2009 These microscopy images show the cellular reprogramming uncovered by EMBL scientists. On the left is an ovary of a normal adult female mouse, with a close-up (top left) showing the typical female granulosa cells. When the Foxl2 gene was silenced in these cells (right, top right: close-up), they took on the characteristics of Sertoli cells, the cells normally found in testes of male mice. Image credit: Treier / EMBL

The Battle of the Sexes

Science Is it a boy or a girl? Expecting parents may be accustomed to this question, but contrary to what they may think, the answer doesn’t depend solely on their child’s sex chromosomes. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany and the Medical Research…

2009

science

10 December 2009 These microscopy images demonstrate the effects of Notch signalling on the hearts of newborn mice (top) and of adult mice after a heart attack (bottom). In a normal neonatal heart (top left), the two major heart chambers (ventricles) are clearly separated by tissue (septum). But when Notch signalling was inactivated in an embryo’s heart muscle cells, the septum between the ventricles of the newborn mouse’s heart was incomplete (asterisk). The same defect commonly occurs in humans with congenital heart disease, often leading to circulatory distress. In the images of adult hearts (bottom), healthy tissue is shown in red and damaged tissue in blue. Normally (bottom left), a heart attack causes extensive tissue damage to the left ventricle (right-hand cavity), but mice in which Notch was re-activated after the heart attack had reduced tissue damage (bottom right) and improved cardiac function. Image credit: EMBL

From fruit fly wings to heart failure. Why Not(ch)?

Science Almost a century after it was discovered in fruit flies with notches in their wings, the Notch signalling pathway may come to play an important role in the recovery from heart attacks. In a study published today in Circulation Research, scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)…

2009

science

26 November 2009 This image represents the integration of genomic, metabolic, proteomic, structural and cellular information about Mycoplasma pneumoniae in this project: one layer of an Electron Tomography scan of a bottle-shaped M. pneumoniae cell (grey) is overlaid with a schematic representation of this bacterium’s metabolism, where blue indicates interactions between proteins encoded in genes from the same functional unit. Apart from these expected interactions, the scientists found that, surprisingly, many proteins are multifunctional. For instance, there were various unexpected physical interactions (yellow lines) between proteins and the subunits that form the ribosome, which is depicted as an Electron microscopy image (yellow). Image credit: Takuji Yamada / EMBL

First-ever blueprint of a minimal cell is more complex than expected

Science What are the bare essentials of life, the indispensable ingredients required to produce a cell that can survive on its own? Can we describe the molecular anatomy of a cell, and understand how an entire organism functions as a system? These are just some of the questions that scientists in a…

2009

science

8 November 2009

Drought resistance explained

Science Much as adrenaline coursing through our veins drives our body’s reactions to stress, the plant hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is behind plants’ responses to stressful situations such as drought, but how it does so has been a mystery for years. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology…

2009

science

4 November 2009 fluorescence microscopy images of fruit fly embryos

Deciphering the regulatory code

Science Embryonic development is like a well-organised building project, with the embryo’s DNA serving as the blueprint from which all construction details are derived. Cells carry out different functions according to a developmental plan, by expressing, i.e. turning on, different combinations of genes.…

2009

science

30 September 2009 In the centre, a structural model determined by X-ray crystallography shows how the two tags (attached to a short section of the histone protein – all in cyan) fit neatly into the Brdt pocket (purple). In the background image, hypercompaction by Brdt causes relatively diffuse chromatin (stained blue inside the nuclei of two cells on the top left) to compact and clump together (two on the bottom right).

Putting the squeeze on sperm DNA

Science In the quest for speed, olympic swimmers shave themselves or squeeze into high-tech super-suits. In the body, sperm are the only cells that swim and, as speed is crucial to fertility, have developed their own ways to become exceptionally streamlined. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology…

2009

science

21 September 2009 This microscopy image, taken ten days after injury, shows that the muscle fibres of normal mice (left) had re-grown, while in mice which couldn’t boost C/EBPβ production (right) there were still many fibres that had not regenerated (arrowheads), and the tissue had a number of scars (arrows).

To regenerate muscle, cellular garbage men must become builders

Science For scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, what seemed like a disappointing result turned out to be an important discovery. Their findings, published online this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), provide…

2009

science

13 September 2009 In normal skin (left), the stem cells at the base, shown in green, differentiate into skin cells, shown in red. In mice whose skin has neither C/EBPα nor C/EBPβ (middle), this differentiation is blocked: green-labeled stem cells appear in upper layers of skin, and there are no differentiated skin cells (no red staining). This also happens at the initial stages of basal cell carcinomas. In skin where C/EBPα is present but has lost its capacity to interact with E2F, a molecule that regulates the cell cycle (right), skin cells start differentiating abnormally, before they have properly exited the stem cell ‘program’ (yellow/orange). This is similar to what is observed in the initial stages of squamous cell carcinomas, a more aggressive and invasive skin tumour.

How stem cells make skin

Science Stem cells have a unique ability: when they divide, they can either give rise to more stem cells, or to a variety of specialised cell types. In both mice and humans, a layer of cells at the base of the skin contains stem cells that can develop into the specialised cells in the layers above.…

2009

science

13 August 2009

Raising the alarm when DNA goes bad

Science Our genome is constantly under attack from things like UV light and toxins, which can damage or even break DNA strands and ultimately lead to cancer and other diseases. Scientists have known for a long time that when DNA is damaged, a key enzyme sets off a cellular ‘alarm bell’ to alert the…

2009

science

2 August 2009

Scientists open doors to diagnosis of emphysema

Science Chronic inflammatory lung diseases like chronic bronchitis and emphysema are a major global health problem, and the fourth leading cause of death and disability in developed countries, with smoking accounting for 90% of the risk for developing them. Work by scientists at the European Molecular…

2009

science

7 July 2009

Scientists identify cholesterol-regulating genes

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Heidelberg, Germany, have come a step closer to understanding how cholesterol levels are regulated. In a study published today in the journal Cell Metabolism, the researchers identified 20 genes that are involved…

2009

science

25 June 2009 The microscope image of the dorsal closure of a fly embryo shows alternating stripes of epithelial cells with aligned microtubule bundles (green) and epithelial cells treated with a microtubule-destroying drug (blue). Labelled in red is the protein actin that lines the border of cells, particularly the amnioserosa cells occupying the eye-shaped opening.

Uncovering how cells cover gaps

Science Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, came a step closer to understanding how cells close gaps not only during embryonic development but also during wound healing. Their study, published this week in the journal Cell, uncovers a fundamental…

2009

science

23 June 2009 Lattice maps for immature HIV particles. The 3D computer reconstruction shows the immature Gag lattice of HIV that matures to form the protein shell of the infecious virus. Maps are shown in perspective such that hexamers on the rear surface of the particle appear smaller. The side of the particle toward the viewer lacks ordered Gag. IMAGE: John Briggs/EMBL

New electron microscopy images reveal the assembly of HIV

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University Clinic Heidelberg, Germany, have produced a three-dimensional reconstruction of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus), which shows the structure of the immature form of the virus at unprecedented detail. Immature HIV is…

2009

science

9 June 2009 Reflect applied to a pubmed webpage. Protein names found in the text are highlighted in blue, chemicals in orange. Pop-up windows provide extra information on the biomolecules.

New EMBL service makes web browsing efficient for biologists

Science The life sciences are scaling up and produce huge amounts of data and new literature at an amazing pace. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) now offers a new free service to help researchers, teachers and students keep up-to-date with scientific literature on the web, especially when…

2009

science

28 May 2009

Sugarcoating fruit fly development

Science Proteins are the executive agents that carry out all processes in a cell. Their activity is controlled and modified with the help of small chemical tags that can be dynamically added to and removed from the protein. 25 years after its first discovery, researchers at the European Molecular Biology…

2009

science

30 April 2009

Recycler protein helps prevent disease

Science Recycling is important not only on a global scale, but also at the cellular level, since key molecules tend to be available in limited numbers. This means a cell needs to have efficient recycling mechanisms. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University,…

2009

science

23 April 2009

New study reveals the protein that makes phosphate chains in yeast

Science It can be found in all life forms, and serves a multitude of purposes, from energy storage to stress response to bone calcification. This molecular jack-of-all trades is polyphosphate, a long chain of phosphate molecules. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in…

2009

science

24 February 2009 A full body shot of Medaka juveniles, taken by Philipp Keller, from the lab of Ernst Stelzer at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), with a newly developed microscope called Digital Scanned Laser Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscope. Picture credits: Philipp Keller, Stelzer Group, EMBL

Picture Release

Science ‘Useless fish with big eyes’. This is what Medaka, the name of the Japanese killifish in the pictures, means in Japan where it originally comes from. While its eyes are undeniably big, the fish has proven remarkably useful for scientists. It is a simple model organism, amenable to…

2009

science

4 February 2009 High resolution image of the key domain of the influenza virus polymerase. The active site responsible for RNA cleavage is shown in red. Its activity is crucial for the virus to multiply in human cells

New findings reveal how influenza virus hijacks human cells

Science Influenza is and remains a disease to reckon with. Seasonal epidemics around the world kill several hundred thousand people every year. In the light of looming pandemics if bird flu strains develop the ability to infect humans easily, new drugs and vaccines are desperately sought. Researchers at…

2009

science

25 January 2009

Re-write the textbooks: transcription is bidirectional

Science Genes that contain instructions for making proteins make up less than 2% of the human genome. Yet, for unknown reasons, most of our genome is transcribed into RNA. The same is true for many other organisms that are easier to study than humans. Researchers in the groups of Lars Steinmetz at the…

2009

science

3 December 2008

Picture Release

Science Cell division is one of the most fundamental processes of life. It explains how one cell can give rise to an organism of several million cells, it determines the shape of different life forms and it underpins our body’s capacity to heal when injured. Often we only notice how important cell…

2008

science

20 November 2008

Uncovering secrets of life in the ocean

Science The best-selling novel The swarm captured the imagination of countless readers with the fascination of marine life. But it also showed how little we understand life in the depth of the ocean. Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Max Planck Institute (MPI)…

2008

science

22 October 2008

Picture Release

Science What at the first sight could be pictures of planets or other cosmic structures are actually microscope images of balls (cysts) of human kidney cells. They were taken by Emmanuel Reynaud, in the group of Ernst Stelzer at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), with a widefield microscope.…

2008

science

16 October 2008

Researchers establish international human microbiome consortium

Lab Matters Today at a meeting organised by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, scientists from around the globe announced the formation of the International Human Microbiome Consortium (IHMC), an effort that will enable researchers to characterise the relationship of the…

2008

lab-matters

23 July 2008

Open access to large-scale drug discovery data

Lab Matters The Wellcome Trust has awarded £4.7 million (€5.8 million) to EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to support the transfer of a large collection of information on the properties and activities of drugs and a large set of drug-like small molecules from the publicly listed…

2008

lab-matters

20 July 2008

Pregnant mice block out unwelcome admirers to protect their pups

Science Mouse mothers-to-be have a remarkable way to protect their unborn pups. Because the smell of a strange male’s urine can cause miscarriage and reactivate the ovulatory cycle, pregnant mice prevent the action of such olfactory stimuli by blocking their smell. Researchers from the European…

2008

science

11 July 2008

Teaching old drugs new tricks

Science Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) discovered a new way to make use of drugs’ unwanted side effects. They developed a computational method that compares how similar the side effects of different drugs are and predicts how likely the drugs act on the same target…

2008

science

9 July 2008

Zooming in on genetic shuffling

Science Genetic recombination, the process by which sexually reproducing organisms shuffle their genetic material when producing germ cells, leads to offspring with a new genetic make-up and influences the course of evolution. In the current issue of Nature, researchers at the European Molecular…

2008

science

4 July 2008

New research sheds light on the molecular basis of crib death

Science Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is a condition that unexpectedly and unexplainably takes the lives of seemingly healthy babies aged between a month and a year. Now researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Monterotondo, Italy, have developed a mouse model of the so-called crib…

2008

science

20 June 2008

Scientists fix bugs in our understanding of evolution

Science What makes a human different from a chimp? Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) have come one important step closer to answering such evolutionary questions correctly. In the current issue of Science they uncover…

2008

science

30 May 2008

X chromosome exposed

Science Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Hinxton, UK, have revealed new insights into how sex chromosomes are regulated. A chromatin modifying enzyme helps compensate for the fact that…

2008

science

28 May 2008

Securing the future of Europe’s biological data resources

Lab Matters In a contract signed today, the European Commission has awarded €4.5 million to a pan-European consortium to decide upon the best way to unite Europe’s biological data resources into a sustainable, integrative bioinformatics network for the life sciences. The European Life-science…

2008

lab-matters

7 May 2008

Platypus genome sequence published

Science UK-based researchers at the Medical Research Council Functional Genomics Unit in Oxford and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge have revealed the genetic makeup of the one of the world’s strangest mammals. They have analysed the DNA…

2008

science

4 May 2008

Getting wise to the influenza virus’ tricks

Science Influenza is currently a grave concern for governments and health organisations around the world. Now one of the tactics used by influenza virus to take over the machinery of infected cells has been laid bare by structural biologists at the EMBL, the joint Unit of Virus Host-Cell Interaction of…

2008

science

8 April 2008

An unexpected way to cause leukaemia

Science Leukaemia – cancer of blood or bone marrow – is caused by mutations that allow defective blood cells to accumulate and displace healthy blood. To devise effective therapies it is crucial to know which mutations cause leukaemia and which cell type gives rise to leukaemic cells. Researchers from…

2008

science

6 March 2008

New revelations in epigenetic control shed light on breast cancer

Science Epigenetic regulation – modifications to the structure of chromatin that influence which genes are expressed in a cell – is a key player in embryonic development and cancer formation. Researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg now gained new insight…

2008

science

5 February 2008

Europe’s most common genetic disease is a liver disorder

Science Much less widely known than the dangerous consequences of iron deficiencies is the fact that too much iron can also cause problems. The exact origin of the genetic iron overload disorder hereditary hemochromatosis [HH] has remained elusive. In a joint effort, researchers from the European Molecular…

2008

science

22 January 2008

International consortium announces the 1000 Genomes Project

Lab Matters Drawing on the expertise of multi-disciplinary research teams, the map developed by the 1000 Genomes Project will provide a view of biomedically relevant DNA variations at a resolution unmatched by current resources. The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), working with long-term collaborator…

2008

lab-matters

8 January 2008

Life savers in the gut

Science Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have discovered that proteins that regulate the body’s iron household play a vital role in making sure enough nutrients and water are absorbed in the intestine. Mice lacking these proteins suffer from weight loss and…

2008

science

17 December 2007

An ambulance man for muscle damage

Science It does not take much to injure a muscle. Sometimes one sudden, inconsiderate movement does the job. Unfortunately, damaged muscles are not as efficient at repair as other tissues such as bone. Researchers of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s Mouse Biology Unit (EMBL), Italy, and…

2007

science

11 December 2007

ArrayExpress database doubles in size to 100,000 hybridisations

Lab Matters ArrayExpress, the publicly available database of transcriptomics data at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), has doubled in size in 2007, reaching the 100,000-hybridisation milestone. The database now holds snapshots of gene expression…

2007

lab-matters

5 December 2007

The closest look ever at native human tissue

Science Seeing proteins in their natural environment and interactions inside cells has been a longstanding goal. Using an advanced microscopy technique called cryo-electron tomography, researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) have visualised proteins responsible for cell-cell…

2007

science

2 December 2007

How cells keep in shape

Science Cells in our body come in various shapes and sizes. Each cell is shaped in such a way as to optimise it for a specific function. When things go wrong and a cell does not adopt its dedicated shape, its function can be impaired and the cell can cause problems in the body. Researchers at […]

2007

science

12 November 2007

Luxembourg joins EMBL

Lab Matters Today, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) announces Luxembourg as the new member of its international community. Accepted by EMBL’s council and ratified by the parliament of Luxembourg, the Grand-Duchy has officially joined the institute as the 20th member state. “EMBL is…

2007

lab-matters

23 October 2007

The East Wing and a new dawn for the EMBL-EBI

Lab Matters The European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) officially opens its new East Wing today with a reception for prominent guests. The East Wing will be jointly opened by Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation, UK, and Robert-Jan Smits,…

2007

lab-matters

21 October 2007

Scientists uncover how hormones achieve their effects

Science New insights into the cellular signal chain through which pheromones stimulate mating in yeast have been gained by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL]. Similar signal chains are found in humans, where they are involved in many important processes such as the…

2007

science

3 October 2007

EMBL reaches north

Lab Matters Today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the University of Helsinki, Finland, the University of Oslo, Norway, and Umeå University, Sweden, officially launch their new Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine. The agreement will encourage scientific exchange and collaborations…

2007

lab-matters

15 September 2007

A molecule that protects from neuronal disorders

Science Many neuronal disorders, including epilepsy, schizophrenia and lissencephaly ─ a form of mental retardation ─ result from abnormal migration of nerve cells during the development of the brain. Researchers from the Mouse Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy,…

2007

science

28 August 2007

Minimum Information Standards ─ all for one and one for all

Lab Matters Three papers published by EMBL scientists and their collaborators will make it much easier to share and compare information from large-scale proteomics data. The papers are published in Nature Biotechnology on 8 and 26 August. As the quantity of available biological information and the use of…

2007

lab-matters

9 August 2007

A unique arrangement for egg cell division

Science Which genes are passed on from mother to child is decided very early on during the maturation of the egg cell in the ovary. In a cell division process that is unique to egg cells, half of the chromosomes are eliminated from the egg before it is fertilised. Using a powerful microscope, researchers…

2007

science

30 July 2007

Uncovering the secrets of the deep

Science The UniProt Consortium, which includes the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), has added a new database repository for metagenomic and environmental data to its family of protein sequence databases. Metagenomics is the large-scale genomic…

2007

science

11 July 2007

EMBL expands to Australia

Lab Matters Today, delegates representing the 19 member states of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) offered Australia associate membership in EMBL’s international community. The membership is planned to start officially in January 2008 and will initially last for seven years. “EMBL…

2007

lab-matters

9 July 2007

A stepwise retreat: how immune cells catch pathogens

Science To protect us from disease our immune system employs macrophages, cells that roam our body in search of disease-causing bacteria. With the help of long tentacle-like protrusions, macrophages can catch suspicious particles, pull them towards their cell bodies, internalise and destroy them. Using a…

2007

science

8 July 2007

A gene that protects from kidney disease

Science Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the University of Michigan have discovered a gene that protects us against a serious kidney disease. In the current online issue of Nature Genetics they report that mutations in the gene cause nephronopthisis (NPHP) in humans and…

2007

science

29 June 2007

Modern brains have an ancient core

Science Hormones control growth, metabolism, reproduction and many other important biological processes. In humans, and all other vertebrates, the chemical signals are produced by specialised brain centres such as the hypothalamus and secreted into the blood stream that distributes them around the body.…

2007

science

22 June 2007

New compound effectively treats fungal infections

Science A new mechanism to attack hard-to-treat fungal infections has been revealed by scientists from the biotech company Anacor Pharmaceuticals Inc., California, and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL] outstation in Grenoble, France. In the current issue of Science they describe…

2007

science

15 June 2007

Casting the molecular net

Science Scientists at the Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute of Mount Sinai Hospital (Canada), the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (Germany), and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) have created a new computational method called NetworKIN. This method uses biological networks to better…

2007

science

14 June 2007

New findings challenge established views about human genome

Science The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE), an international research consortium organised by the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), today published the results of its exhaustive, four-year effort to build a “parts list” of…

2007

science

10 June 2007

Researchers shed light on shrinking of chromosomes

Science A human cell contains an enormous 1.8 metres of DNA partitioned into 46 chromosomes. These have to be copied and distributed equally into two daughter cells at every division. Condensation, the shortening of chromosomes, allows the cell to handle such huge amounts of genetic material during cell…

2007

science

5 June 2007

Uncovering the molecular basis of obesity

Science Why does the same diet make some of us gain more weight than others? The answer could be a molecule called Bsx, as scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the German Institute for Nutrition (DIFE), Potsdam, and the University of Cincinnati report in the current issue of…

2007

science

3 June 2007

New insights into the neural basis of anxiety

Science People who suffer from anxiety tend to interpret ambiguous situations, situations that could potentially be dangerous but not necessarily so, as threatening. Researchers from the Mouse Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy have now uncovered the neural basis for…

2007

science

22 May 2007

The first public nucleotide sequence database turns 25

Lab Matters It was the world’s earliest public database of DNA and RNA sequences and remains Europe’s primary nucleotide sequence resource. The database is maintained by EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton (UK) in collaboration with its US and Japanese counterparts GenBank and…

2007

lab-matters

16 May 2007

Mechanism of microRNAs deciphered

Science Over 30% of our genes are under the control of small molecules called microRNAs. They prevent specific genes from being turned into protein and regulate many crucial processes like cell division and development, but how they do so has remained unclear. Now researchers from the European Molecular…

2007

science

4 May 2007

A matter of force

Science When a cell divides, normally the result is two identical daughter cells. In some cases however, cell division leads to two cells with different properties. This is called asymmetric cell division and plays an important role in embryonic development and the self-renewal of stem cells. Researchers…

2007

science

20 April 2007

The origin of the brain lies in a worm

Science The rise of the central nervous system (CNS) in animal evolution has puzzled scientists for centuries. Vertebrates, insects and worms evolved from the same ancestor, but their CNSs are different and were thought to have evolved only after their lineages had split during evolution. Researchers from…

2007

science

14 March 2007

Researchers identify molecular basis of inflammatory bowel disease

Science Inflammatory bowel diseases, such as Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis, severely impair the lives of more than four million people worldwide. The development of effective therapies against these diseases requires an understanding of their underlying molecular mechanisms. Researchers from…

2007

science

6 March 2007

An architectural plan of the cell

Science Like our body every cell has a skeleton that provides it with a shape, confers rigidity and protects its fragile inner workings. The cytoskeleton is built of long protein filaments that assemble into networks whose overall architecture and fine detail can only be revealed with high resolution…

2007

science

4 March 2007

A clearer view on biology

Science The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) has developed a new computational tool that makes images obtained with cutting-edge microscopes even sharper. The technological advance and its applications are published in this week’s online issue of the journal Nature Methods. Since the…

2007

science

25 February 2007

A first glimpse of the influenza replication machine

Science In 1918, 50 million people died during a worldwide influenza pandemic caused by mutation of a bird-specific strain of the influenza virus. Recently H5N1, another highly infectious avian strain has caused outbreaks of bird flu around the world. There is great concern that this virus might also…

2007

science

12 February 2007

A signal that protects the liver from hepatitis and cancer

Science Liver cancer is one of the deadliest cancers worldwide; every year sees more than 400,000 new cases, and most of the victims die in less than one year. Despite extensive research, the underlying molecular mechanisms of the disease are poorly understood. A new study by researchers from the Mouse…

2007

science

11 February 2007

Putting an old drug to a new use

Science We all know that iron deficiencies are dangerous, but also too much iron is bad for our health. Our body stores excess iron in various tissues, where it can lead to organ failure and even death if not treated before irreversible damage has occurred. Researchers from the Innsbruck Medical…

2007

science

2 February 2007

Investigating the invisible life in our environment

Science Microorganisms make up more than a third of the Earth’s biomass. They are found in water, on land and even in our bodies, recycling nutrients, influencing the planet’s climate or causing diseases. Still, we know surprisingly little about the smallest beings that colonise Earth. A new…

2007

science

8 January 2007

UK PubMed Central launched

Lab Matters From today scientists will be able to access a vast collection of biomedical research and to submit their own published results for inclusion in a new online resource. Based on a model currently used by the US National Institute of Health, UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) will provide free access to a…

2007

lab-matters

8 January 2007

Getting to the bottom of memory

Science Phone numbers, the way to work, granny’s birthday – our brain with its finite number of nerve cells can store incredible amounts of information. At the bottom of memory lies a complex network of molecules. To understand how this network brings about one of the most remarkable capacities of…

2007

science

29 December 2006

Roadworks on the motorways of the cell

Science A cell is a busy place. In a permanent rush hour, molecules are transported along a dynamic motorway system made up of filaments called microtubules. Microtubules constantly grow and shrink and are rapidly assembled wherever a cargo needs to go, but during this transportation process they need to…

2006

science

14 December 2006

Magna Carta for Researchers

Lab Matters Today, Janez Potočnik, European Commissioner for Science and Research, received a statement of support for the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers from EIROforum. “The EIROforum partners warmly welcome this valuable initiative by…

2006

lab-matters

11 December 2006

Better, faster, easier

Lab Matters Today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) launches its new, faster and easier website with an exhaustive search engine at its centre. The web interface has been streamlined on the basis of user feedback from a recent extensive…

2006

lab-matters

27 November 2006

CiteXplore

Lab Matters Today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) launches CiteXplore, a new freely accessible literature resource service. Biological researchers require two crucial sources of information: scientific literature published in peerreviewed…

2006

lab-matters

2 November 2006

Helping muscle regenerate

Science Muscle wasting can occur at all ages as the result of genetic defects, heart failure, spinal injury or cancer. A therapy to cure the loss of muscle mass and strength, which has a severe impact on patients’ lives, is desperately sought. Blocking a central signal molecule, researchers from the…

2006

science

6 October 2006

Giving European science a headstart through training

Lab Matters Today, the German Minister for Education and Research, Annette Schavan, breaks ground for the new training and conference centre for the life sciences that will be built on the EMBL campus in Heidelberg. The German Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), the Klaus Tschira…

2006

lab-matters

27 September 2006

How nature tinkers with the cellular clock

Science The life of a cell is all about growing and dividing at the right time. That is why the cell cycle is one of the most tightly regulated cellular processes. A control system with several layers adjusts when key components of the cell cycle machinery are produced, activated and degraded to make sure…

2006

science

7 September 2006

New EMBL/CRG Research Unit for Systems Biology launched today

Lab Matters Today the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) and the Spanish Ministry for Education and Science (MEC) officially launch their new joint EMBL/CRG Research Unit in Systems Biology on the campus of the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park. The Spanish…

2006

lab-matters

3 September 2006

Lost in the labyrinth

Science Blood cells have limited lifespans, which means that they must be continually replaced by calling up reserves and turning these into the blood cell types needed by the body. Claus Nerlov and his colleagues at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) unit in Monterotondo, Italy, in…

2006

science

25 August 2006

A wandering eye

Science Eyes are among the earliest recognisable structures in an embryo; they start off as bulges on the sides of tube-shaped tissue that will eventually become the brain. Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg have now discovered that cells are programmed to make…

2006

science

25 August 2006

A switch between life and death

Science Cells in an embryo divide at an amazing rate to build a whole body, but this growth needs to be controlled. Otherwise the result may be defects in embryonic development or cancer in adults. Controlling growth requires that some cells divide while others die; their fates are determined by signals…

2006

science

9 August 2006

EMBL scientists found start-up company to develop anti-cancer drugs

Lab Matters Today EMBL scientists, EMBL’s commercial affiliate, EMBL Enterprise Management Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM) and EMBL’s venture vehicle, EMBL Ventures GmbH, announce the foundation of Elara Pharmaceuticals GmbH, a start-up company that will translate basic research findings into new…

2006

lab-matters

6 August 2006

Alleviating the burden of Multiple Sclerosis

Science Depression, coordination and speech problems, muscle weakness and disability are just a few of the symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Researchers from the Mouse Biology Unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Italy and the Department of Neuropathology at the Faculty of…

2006

science

31 July 2006

EMBL-EBI and collaborators win bid to run UK PubMed Central

Lab Matters Scientists will be able to access a vast collection of biomedical research at the touch of a button thanks to a major new initiative that aims to promote the free transfer of ideas in a bid to speed up scientific discovery. Based on a model currently used in the United States, UK PubMed Central…

2006

lab-matters

11 July 2006

Mapping the protein world

Lab Matters In the early days of X-ray crystallography obtaining a three-dimensional model of a protein required wire models, screws, bolts and years of tedious calculations by hand. Today macromolecular models are built by computers – thanks to sophisticated software and in particular a package called…

2006

lab-matters

29 June 2006

Croatia becomes EMBL’s 19th Member State

Lab Matters Croatia has officially joined the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) as the organisation’s 19th Member State. The Croatian parliament ratified its membership after EMBL’s council had accepted the country’s application. “Joining EMBL is a very important step…

2006

lab-matters

16 June 2006

Cracking a virus protection shield

Science Ebola, measles and rabies are serious threats to public health in developing countries. Despite different symptoms all of the diseases are caused by the same class of viruses that unlike most other living beings carry their genetic information on a single RNA molecule instead of a double strand of…

2006

science

29 May 2006

New potential drug target in tuberculosis

Science Tuberculosis remains one of the deadliest threats to public health. Every year two million people die of the disease, which is caused by the microorganism Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Roughly one third of the world’s population is infected and more and more bacterial strains have developed…

2006

science

10 April 2006

Getting to the heart of cardiovascular diseases

Lab Matters Today three research organisations announce the merging of their expertise to fight cardiovascular diseases, which are among the most common health problems and causes of death in the world. The Magdi Yacoub Institute (MYI) at the UK’s Harefield Heart Science Centre, Imperial College London,…

2006

lab-matters

5 April 2006

With joint forces against Malaria

Events Today the network of excellence for Biology and Pathology of the Malaria Parasite (BioMalPar), will bring together the world’s elite in the field of Malaria research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg. At the second annual BioMalPar conference, organised jointly…

2006

events

28 March 2006

Bringing science out of the lab into the classroom

Lab Matters Science is moving more rapidly than ever; one groundbreaking discovery chases the next at an incredible speed. School teachers have trouble keeping up with the pace, and many pupils call science classes “boring”. Today, Europe’s major research organisations launch Science in…

2006

lab-matters

16 March 2006

A balancing act between the sexes

Science Recent research at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) reveals new insights into how cells achieve equality between the sexes. A new link discovered between the membrane surrounding the nucleus and the male X-chromosome in fruit flies may play a crucial role in determining how active…

2006

science

2 March 2006

A new tree of life allows a closer look at the origin of species

Science In 1870 the German scientist Ernst Haeckel mapped the evolutionary relationships of plants and animals in the first ‘tree of life’. Since then scientists have continuously redrawn and expanded the tree adding microorganisms and using modern molecular data, yet, many parts of the tree…

2006

science

16 February 2006

Waking a sleeping virus

Science A detailed structural picture of a molecule that plays a key role in activating the Epstein Barr Virus in human cells has now been obtained by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Institut de Virologie Moléculaire et Structurale (IVMS), associated with the…

2006

science

22 January 2006

The closest look ever at the cell’s machines

Science Today researchers in Germany announce they have finished the first complete analysis of the “molecular machines” in one of biology’s most important model organisms: S. cerevisiae (baker’s yeast). The study from the biotechnology company Cellzome, in collaboration with the…

2006

science

11 January 2006

The giant protein titin helps build muscles

Science Imagine grabbing two snakes by the tail so that they can’t wriggle off in opposite directions. Scientists at the Hamburg Outstation of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and collaborators from King’s College in London have now discovered that something similar happens to a…

2006

science

21 December 2005

A key that opens cells to the deadly malaria parasite

Science Researchers at the International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (ICGEB) in India and a unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in France have made a key discovery about a molecule that helps the malaria parasite infect human cells. India is one of the countries…

2005

science

6 December 2005

Setting the standard for computer models of life

Lab Matters In the December 6 issue of Nature Biotechnology, scientists from 14 different organizations around the world, including the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute, propose a new quality standard for biochemical models. MIRIAM [for Minimum information requested in the annotation of biochemical…

2005

lab-matters

24 November 2005

The earliest animals had human-like genes

Science Species evolve at very different rates, and the evolutionary line that produced humans seems to be among the slowest. The result, according to a new study by scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL], is that our species has retained characteristics of a very ancient ancestor…

2005

science

15 November 2005

Many needles, many haystacks

Science Most of what happens in cells is the work of machines that contain dozens of molecules, chiefly proteins. With the completion of human and other genomes, researchers now have a nearly complete ‘parts list’ of such machines; what’s lacking is the manual telling where all the pieces…

2005

science

13 November 2005

Limiting the damage in stroke

Science Scientists at the Universities of Heidelberg and Ulm and a unit of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, have discovered that a specific signal within brain cells may determine whether they live or die after a stroke. Their study, published online (November 13) by…

2005

science

31 October 2005

ENFIN! Computational systems biology comes to a lab bench near you

Lab Matters The Commission of the European Union has awarded EUR 9 million over five years for a new Network of Excellence that will make computational systems biology accessible to bench scientists throughout Europe and beyond. ENFIN, which stands for ‘Experimental Network for Functional…

2005

lab-matters

6 October 2005

Defusing dangerous mutations

Science Mutations in genes are the basis of evolution, so we owe our existence to them. Most mutations are harmful, however, because they cause cells to build defective proteins. So cells have evolved quality control mechanisms that recognize and counteract genetic mistakes. Now scientists of the Molecular…

2005

science

4 September 2005

A new link between stem cells and tumors

Science Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and the Institute of Biomedical Research of the Parc Científic de Barcelona (IRB-PCB) have now added key evidence to claims that some types of cancer originate with defects in stem cells. The study, reported this week in…

2005

science

29 August 2005

EBI and Ghent University launch PRIDE

Lab Matters The European Bioinformatics Institute and Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) – Ghent University have launched the PRoteomics IDEntifications database (PRIDE). PRIDE allows researchers who work in the field of proteomics – the large-scale study of proteins – to…

2005

lab-matters

25 August 2005

A double punch for female survival

Science Achieving equality between the sexes can be a challenge even for single cells. Since evolution began removing bits of male DNA to create the ‘Y’ chromosome, males have had a single copy of certain key genes on the X chromosome, whereas females have two. Normally this would lead females…

2005

science

22 August 2005

Public collections of DNA and RNA sequence reach 100 gigabases

Lab Matters The world’s three leading public repositories for DNA and RNA sequence information have reached 100 gigabases (100,000,000,000 bases; the ‘letters’ of the genetic code) of sequence. Thanks to their data exchange policy, which has paved the way for the global exchange of many types…

2005

lab-matters

18 July 2005

Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit initiates second phase

Lab Matters The first rate research from the Molecular Medicine Partnership Unit (MMPU) is now set to continue for the long-term. The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and the Medical Faculty of University of Heidelberg, who formed the joint venture in 2002, have announced their plans to initiate a…

2005

lab-matters

13 July 2005

Actin moves chromosomes

Science Microtubules need a helping hand to find chromosomes in dividing egg cells, scientists have discovered. Although it was generally accepted that microtubules act alone as the cellular ropes to pull chromosomes into place, a new study by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)…

2005

science

12 July 2005

Hunt for human genes involved in cell division under way

Lab Matters A systematic search through human genes has begun at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany. Working within the MitoCheck consortium that includes 10 other institutes throughout Europe, the EMBL scientists will silence all human genes, one-by-one, to find those…

2005

lab-matters

1 July 2005

Trees, vines and nets: microbial evolution changes its face

Science EBI researchers have changed our view of 4 billion years of microbial evolution. Christos Ouzounis and colleagues have gained intriguing quantitative insights into how gene families are transferred, not only ‘vertically’ through passage from one organism to its progeny, but also…

2005

science

1 May 2005

EMBL’s fourth Director-General, Dr Iain Mattaj, takes office

Lab Matters Dr. Iain Mattaj today took over the leadership of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory [EMBL], a prominent basic research and training institute with laboratories in France, Germany, Italy and the UK. “The pace of progress in the life sciences is remarkable. I see my job as ensuring that…

2005

lab-matters

21 April 2005

Whale bones and farm soil: Sequencing biodiversity

Science Instead of sequencing the genome of one organism, why not sequence a drop of sea water, a gram of farm soil or even a sunken whale skeleton? Scientists at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg and their US collaborators have done just that, and the result is a new…

2005

science

11 April 2005

A new way to share models of biological systems

Science Today sees the launch of BioModels, the world’s first database of annotated biological models. BioModels is the result of a collaboration led by the European Bioinformatics Institute (UK) and the SBML Team, an international group that develops opensource standards to describe biological…

2005

science

31 March 2005

The transparent organism

Lab Matters A novel high-tech microscope will be brought to the marketplace, giving laboratories everywhere fascinating new insights into living organisms. EMBLEM Technology Transfer GmbH (EMBLEM), the commercial entity of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), announced today that it has signed a…

2005

lab-matters

28 February 2005

Double recognition of EBI scientists by the ISCB

Lab Matters The International Society for Computational Biology has named two scientists from the European Bioinformatics Institute as the winners of its awards for 2005. Janet Thornton wins the Senior Scientist Accomplishment Award while the Overton Prize goes to Ewan Birney. Thomas Lengauer, the ISCB’s…

2005

lab-matters

3 February 2005

Biology in four dimensions

Science, Science & Technology Most things that happen in the cell are the work of ‘molecular machines’ – complexes of proteins that carry out important cellular functions. Until now, scientists didn’t have a clear idea of when proteins form these machines – are these complexes pre-fabricated or put…

2005

sciencescience-technology

1 February 2005

European bioinformatics grid receives 8 million Euro

Lab Matters The Commission of the European Union has awarded 8.3 million Euro to a pan-European task force who will improve access to biological information for scientists throughout and beyond Europe. The EMBRACE Network of Excellence, which encompasses computational biologists from 17 institutes in 11…

2005

lab-matters

25 January 2005

How do cells travel through our bodies?

Science, Science & Technology One of the most basic yet least understood processes in our bodies is how cells crawl along tissues. This behavior is essential to the formation of an embryo and other processes, but it must be tightly controlled. A disturbance can lead to the spread of cancer cells or diseases like Spina…

2005

sciencescience-technology

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