European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Welcome to the EMBL Alumni Chats podcast sponsored by EMBLEm Technology Transfer.

In this episode, former EMBL group leader Gareth Griffiths speaks about his decades-long career in cell biology, his experiences at the forefront of electron microscopy advancements at EMBL, and his concerns about the decline in usage of this technique.

This interview is conducted by former EMBL group leader Angus Lamond.

It was recorded in April 2024.

So what was

the EMBL like back in the 1970s? What was the cell biology department like?

Well, the whole place was wild.

There were about 50 people then, altogether then.

This special interest group, SICK for short, has been quite busy since the launch two years ago, which brings me to this bite-sized session.

Because together with the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and its European Bioinformatics Institute, the short version of which is EMBL-EBI, they organise a series of online courses this autumn.

all around green computing.

In four sessions, they'll touch on the various aspects of green computing and I will come back to all of that at the end of this episode.

Prior to Gilda, he was CFO and Chief of Portfolio Strategy for the biotech company PureTech Health, and before that, also spent 12 years as Partner and Portfolio Manager at LSP, investing in public biotechs.

Joep holds a PhD in molecular biology from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and a master's in biochemistry from the University of Nijmegen.

Joep, I've got two things for you.

First, welcome to the Biocentury Show.

It was recorded in April 2024.

First of all, I'm Frank Gannon and I was the director of EMBO, but also significantly I was at various stages, I think the scientific director of EMBL was the first thing and then it became senior scientists and various roles in EMBL that I'll come to later on.

But how I got here with circuitous.

I did my PhD in England, postdoc in America, postdoc and position in Strasbourg in France.

They gave me the job and I was nervous because EMBO was a huge, well-organised, big organisation, huge reputation.

I'd been an EMBO member and proud to be one.

And EMBL was even a larger laboratory at a scale and quality that was unsurpassed.

So coming in as in a key position in that world had me slightly concerned.

Well, this obviously helped further your reputation.

And in 2019, you accepted the role of Director General of the prestigious European Molecular Biology Laboratory, known as EMBL or EMBL.

I know you were enjoying your lab work.

So did you have any qualms about taking on this new and quite different role?

I kind of realised that maybe it would be useful for someone like me, a scientist who had had a very active and successful career, to take on a bigger role in an organisation that was designed to try and help support European science as a whole.

And so when I started at EMBL, I was asked to come up with a whole new program accelerating into research areas that no other institute alone could do.

EMBL being funded by 27 at the time, now 30 member states, it needed to do something that was ahead of the game.

So we came up with a program that was called Molecules to Ecosystems.

Yeah, where to start? So I think Heidelberg is, I would say, quite a unique place, especially for oncology, because we have all those research institutions.

We have the EMBL, which is the European Molecular, what's it called? Uh, I don't know really the abbreviation, but, uh, you know, like, for for molecular science, we have that, um, institute and of course, the German cancer research center, which is, uh, quite big and focus on cancer.

Um, then here at the national center for tumor disease density, um, we have to focus on on, uh, research and translational research.

So.

Welcome to the EMBL Alumni Chats podcast, sponsored by EMBL Technology Transfer.

In this episode, EMBL's very first communications officer, David States, discusses his project of documenting EMBL's 20-year history in 1994.

David also speaks on the significance of clear and persuasive communication in science, emphasizing the need for scientists to convey their ideas to non-experts.

This interview was conducted by former EMBL group leader Angus Lamond, and it was recorded in March 2024.

My name's David States.

I was at, uh, EMBL from, I believe, '93 to '96, '97, sometime around there.

Um, I live in, uh, Santa Cruz, California, and have done so for the last 20 years since I left Heidelberg.

David, it's great to see you again.