The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences, with more than 80 independent groups covering the entire spectrum of molecular biology. It is an intergovernmental organisation supported by 28 countries. EMBL operates across six sites: Heidelberg (the site of the main laboratory), Barcelona, Grenoble, Hamburg, Hinxton (near Cambridge, the European Bioinformatics Institute; EBI), and Rome.
EMBL Grenoble and Hamburg provide support in X-ray-related experiments (crystallography, SAXS, X-ray imaging) in close collaboration with the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF) in Grenoble and the German Electron Synchrotron (Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron (DESY) in Hamburg. At both sites, synchrotron beamlines for macromolecular crystallography, small-angle X-ray scattering and X-ray imaging are complemented by facilities for the preparation, characterisation and crystallisation of biological samples. EMBL Heidelberg provides outside users access to the cryo-EM service platform based in the EMBL Imaging Centre. Offering access to infrastructure for single-particle cryo-EM, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), Cryo-correlative light and electron microscopy (Cryo-CLEM), and FIB milling is complemented by advanced facilities for sample preparation, cryo-EM grid preparation and data analysis.
