The European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is an intergovernmental organisation dedicated to molecular biology research which is supported by 29 EU member states, including Malta. EMBL is Europe’s life sciences laboratory which operates across six sites each having their own research units, services and facilities.

In 2022, the scientific programme ‘Molecules to Ecosystems’ was launched to study loss of biodiversity, antimicrobial resistance, pollution, climate change, food security, and emergent pathogens. The flagship project is TREC ('Traversing European Coastlines') aimed at sampling European coastlines to explore the biodiversity and molecular adaptability of microbial communities as well as key selected organisms. The focus is on coastal habitats as these are the richest in species biodiversity and often present the highest levels of pollution.

TREC is supported by EMBL's Advanced Mobile Laboratory (AML) which is equipped with cutting edge technology, visiting various locations so as to interact with local scientists and researchers to conduct experiments (e.g., in marine biology, life sciences, etc) that are planned in advance. The mobile lab also serves as an educational resource. An example of AML's visit to Italy can be found here.

Various pieces of equipment are available on the mobile lab including a confocal laser scanning microscope, flow cytometer, high pressure freezer and plunge freezer for electron microscopy preparation, amongst other. A dedicated team of researchers with the expertise to operate the equipment will travel with the mobile lab.

EMBL’s AML will be visiting Malta early next year for a period of 3 weeks to undertake joint projects with local researchers and for training purposes. Projects may vary in nature and can include those in molecular biology, life sciences, marine biology, earth systems, geosciences, etc Interested researchers can submit a brief description of their proposal using the mobile lab project form, which is available online by Friday 18 October 2024.

For more information on the project, please contact Prof. Melissa Formosa and Prof. Jean Paul Ebejer.