European Molecular Biology Organization

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO)

Motto	Excellence in the life sciences
Formation	1964
Purpose	Promote life science research in Europe
Headquarters	Heidelberg, Germany [1]
Membership	1700 members[2]
Director	Maria Leptin[1]
Key people	Maria Leptin (Director) Paul Nurse (Secretary General) Detlef Weigel (Chair of the EMBO Council)[3]
Website	embo.org

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) is a professional organization of life scientists in Europe.^[4] Its goal is to promote research in life science and enable international exchange between scientists. It organizes courses, workshops and conferences, publishes four scientific journals and supports individual scientists and projects. The organization was founded in 1964 and is a founding member of the Initiative for Science in Europe. As of 2016 the Director of EMBO is Maria Leptin,^[1][5][6][7] a developmental biologist at the University of Cologne, Germany.^[4]

EMBO Conferences and Journals

EMBO organises over 80 meetings attracting more than 10,000 participants every year^[3] including the annual EMBO meeting where over 1000 researchers participate.^[8]

EMBO publishes four peer-reviewed scientific journals: The EMBO Journal,^[9] EMBO Reports,^[10] Molecular Systems Biology,^[11] and EMBO Molecular Medicine.^[12] These span a broad spectrum of molecular biology topics.

EMBO Awards and Fellowships

EMBO confers several awards and prizes including:

• EMBO Membership is a prestigious award, granted annually.^[13][14][15]
• The EMBO Gold Medal is awarded annually in recognition of significant contributions of European researchers to the advancement of science.
• EMBO also awards grants to scientists. These include post-doctoral fellowships (over 2500 fellowships awarded since 2001), young investigator grants (over 300 group leader grants awarded since 2001) and travel grants.^[3][16]

History of EMBO

The European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) was officially launched in July 1964 after a group of European biologists had discussed the idea earlier at a meeting Ravello.^[4][17] In that meeting, the initial goals of EMBO were set, which consisted of creating a central European laboratory for life sciences and increase scientific interactions between researchers in Europe.^[17] At the Ravello meeting, Max Perutz was elected as the first EMBO Chairman and John Kendrew as Secretary General.^[17]

Initially, 140 biologists were elected EMBO members and in 1969, the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC)^[18] was set up as a political body with 14 countries as initial members.^[17] Since 1964,^[19] scientists have been elected annually as members of EMBO^[20] based on excellence in research. There are currently more than 1700 Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization, 84 of whom have received the Nobel Prize.^[21] The EMBC has now 29 member states.^[22]

In 1982, the EMBO Journal was launched, in 1986, the EMBO Gold Medal was established, an annual award for young scientists. The "Young Investigator Program" which awards grants to young professors was established in 2000 and three additional journals were launched in 2000 (EMBO Reports), 2005 (Molecular Systems Biology) and 2008 (EMBO Molecular Medicine). In 2009, Maria Leptin was appointed fifth Director of EMBO.^[23]

In 2011, EMBO established the "Science Policy Programme" which interacts with policy makers and provides analysis of concerns emerging from advances in scientific research.^[4]

Closely affiliated organisations to EMBO include the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), The Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) which like EMBO, primarily operate in the European Research Area (ERA).

References