Research

From genomes to organisms, EMBL is exploring the secrets of life

EMBL’s diverse research programme is pushing the limits of biological knowledge, with our researchers developing innovative techniques and technologies as part of the process.

Research Units

The European Molecular Biology Laboratory is made up of many independent groups of research scientists, who work on a wide range of biological topics. EMBL categorises these groups by area of scientific interest into nine research units. This structure helps EMBL scientists working on similar scientific questions to leverage common tools and experimental apparatus.

EMBL Programme

Pushing boundaries in research, services, training and technology


Learn more about EMBL research

EMBL Faculty

Explore how EMBL research groups collaborate with partners

Publications

Explore EMBL’s full list of scientific publications and preprints which go back as far as 1979

Cross-cutting research topics

From exploring the molecular components inside a cell to studying whole populations and ecosystems, EMBL scientists will explore these different scales through research themes that foster collaborative, multidisciplinary research.

EMBL maintains close cooperative affiliations with organisations of comparable standard, vision and international orientation.

These institutional collaborations are based on shared goals and scientific synergy or complementarity. The aim is to create a network of institutions that enhance molecular life science in Europe and around the world.


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Scientific Officer

Science, research and training in EMBL Heidelberg

We are looking for a highly motivated person with experience in molecular biology, C. elegans genetics, and imaging to join the Köhler research group at EMBL Heidelberg. The Köhler group combines genetics and quantitative imaging to study how chromatin is organised during meiosis to allow for the pr...

Closes on 7th April. Posted 24th March 2026

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Postdoctoral Fellow in AI Agents for Science

Science, research and training in Rome, Italy

Your groupFabio Petroni’s lab - EMBL Rome.Our mission is to build AI systems that act as cognitive members of a scientific laboratory. We design and evaluate agentic AI systems that collaborate with researchers across the full discovery cycle: literature analysis, hypothesis generation, experimental...

Closes on 1st May. Posted 25th March 2026

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Research Software Developer – Network Contextualisation Algorithms

Science, research and training in EMBL-EBI Hinxton

Your GroupThe Saez-Rodriguez group at EMBL-EBI develops computational methods that integrate prior biological knowledge with omics data to build mechanistic models of signalling networks. The group creates widely used open-source tools—including OmniPath, CARNIVAL, COSMOS, CORNETO, and decoupleR—tha...

Closes on 1st April. Posted 18th March 2026

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Scientific Database Curator

Technology in EMBL-EBI Hinxton

Your role We are looking to recruit an expert structural biologist with an experimental background to join the EMDB as a biocurator within the EMBL-EBI OneDep data curation team.High-quality curation of new data depositions is essential for EMDB and PDB to remain the authoritative global sources of...

Closes on 15th April. Posted 26th March 2026

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With support from more than 30 countries, laboratories at six sites across Europe and thousands of scientists and engineers working together, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is a powerhouse of biological expertise. EMBL is an intergovernmental organisation, headquartered in Heidelberg, and was founded in 1974 with the mission of promoting molecular biology research in Europe, training young scientists, and developing new technologies.

EMBL currently employs more than 1800 people in Barcelona, ​​Grenoble, Hamburg, Heidelberg, EMBL-EBI Hinxton (near Cambridge), and Rome.

Publishing hundreds of research articles and hosting dozens of conferences every year, EMBL is driving visionary fundamental research and training Europe’s future scientific talent.

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