Understanding the causes of disease to find new treatments
To understand what causes a disease, scientists often create a disease model – a biological system in the lab that mirrors a disease or shows some of the same disease processes.
Such a model could be cells growing in a Petri dish, or organisms that lack a certain cell type, tissue, or organ structure. Studying these cells or organisms under controlled lab conditions removes the randomness of the environmental influences that affect humans. Disease processes can also be studied using computer models or statistical approaches.
EMBL scientists study models for several common human diseases. By letting cells grow into spherical assemblies called organoids, they can study the role of individual genes in processes such as cancer development, or investigate how cancerous cells react to drug treatment. Bioinformaticians develop computer models to simulate the processes by which viruses infect their host cells and multiply within them. Other researchers engineer specialised scaffolds on which they can grow cells into defined layers, similar to tissues found in the body. These cells can be used to study biological processes associated with vascular disease or malaria. All of these systems help us to better understand human diseases and may lead to new approaches for their treatment.
Scientists in the Genome Biology Unit use and develop cutting-edge methods to study how information across different molecular layers (DNA, RNA, Proteins, metabolites) are regulated, processed, and utilised, and how their variation leads to different phenotypes, including disease.
Scientists in this unit use integrated structural and computational techniques to study biology at scales from molecular structures to organismal communities.
At its sites in Hamburg and Grenoble, EMBL provides its researchers and hundreds of external users each year with access to world-leading sources of X-ray and neutron radiation, enabling them to study the structures of biological molecules.
Scientists at EMBL Barcelona use advanced technologies to observe, manipulate, and model how changes in genes percolate through cells, tissues, and organs, in health and disease.
About the team/jobSafety and toxicology concerns remain one of the most persistent challenges in drug discovery. This is an exciting opportunity to join a multi-disciplinary team on a project to develop a comprehensive open source side effect resource for the scientific and pharmaceutical community,...
Closes on 12th October. Posted 14th September 2026
EditThe Dorrity group at EMBL Heidelberg is seeking a motivated and skilled molecular biologist to join as a Laboratory Officer. Our group uses cutting-edge single-cell genomic techniques to study how cells regulate gene expression over time, with the goal of understanding how individual cells make deci...
Closes on 1st October. Posted 10th September 2026
EditEMBL Grenoble is a leading centre for molecular structural biology, bringing together an international community of scientists, engineers, and support professionals. At the interface of structural biology and cell biology, we investigate fundamental questions in RNA and infection biology, eukaryogen...
Closes on 1st October. Posted 10th September 2026
EditYour roleThe Scientific Officer  contributes to the delivery of high-quality protein production services within the Protein Expression and Purification Core Facility. The role coordinates and delivers protein production projects across different expression systems and chromatogratography platforms,...
Closes on 25th September. Posted 10th September 2026
EditFrom microscopy to mycology, from development to disease modelling, EMBL researchers cover a wide range of topics in the biological sciences.