Interview: How to make use of world’s biggest biological data set or lab on wheels

Maria Ananchenkova, a Senior International Relations Officer at European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) last week outlined the extensive possibilities for scientists in life sciences at the Alliance4Life (A4L) meeting at the Biomedical Research Center of the SAS in Bratislava. In an interview she provided more details on what kind of unique data and facilities they offer, why our region is important for EMBL, success stories they had in Slovakia and the possible cooperation with A4L.

What exceptional methods or data at EMBL can scientists from Slovakia use?

There are a lot of cutting-edge experimental facilities that might be of interest, depending on the research topic. Another very strong area at EMBL is data sciences. Managing vast amounts of data coming out of life sciences research is a well-known challenge. We try to unify the processes of how to collect data, how to properly annotate it so that it can then also be reused, be easily accessible, essentially following the FAIR principles. The data can be accessed by colleagues from member states and EMBL-EBI also provides consultations and training on bioinformatics and data management.

Ms. Plamena Markova said EMBL has the biggest data set of biological data in the world, can you give one concrete example of what kind of data?

For example, one of the databases is UniProt, a database of protein structures that ultimately fed into the AlphaFold, an AI protein design and structure prediction tool whose developers were awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Okay, and what about an example of the exceptional infrastructure that you talk about?

I would say that the structural biology services that are available at EMBL sites in Hamburg and Grenoble are really unique. X-ray imaging is one example of the new and exciting tools that’s being taken up and used by life scientists. Staying with the imaging technologies, our Imaging Centre at EMBL Heidelberg offers access to electron and light microscopes beyond the state-of-the-art.

So how can our scientists use these services and possibilities that you offer?

The first step is always to find out more about the facilities on offer. EMBL’s website provides an overview of our experimental services, with clear guidelines on access. Same goes for our diverse training and visiting programmes. There are often fees associated with accessing a service or a training opportunity, but EMBL also provides fellowships and other funding sources, in particular to researchers from member states like Slovakia. There are also a lot of opportunities that are free of charge, such as open training resources available on demand on EMBL’s website.

And what are the advantages for the scientists from the host institution if they use a mobile lab?

The Advanced Mobile Lab allows EMBL to bring cutting-edge technology directly to researchers and the biological systems they investigate. This approach offers particular advantages for studying non-cultivable or environmentally sensitive organisms, as on-site processing and analysis minimize potential biases introduced by fixation or lengthy transport. At the same time, the Mobile Laboratories provide valuable opportunities for researchers working with model organisms, offering hands-on training and access to advanced methodologies and workflows. Previous Mobile Lab visits have also proven to be fertile ground for initiating new collaborations and fostering follow-up projects at EMBL’s core facilities in Heidelberg. 

How else do you help institutions in life sciences?

EMBL has contributed to setting up new excellent institutes and research units across Europe, especially through our Partnership Programme. We support these institutes with recruitment of scientists,  advising on recruitment strategies and attracting international talents, and participating on recrutiment panels and evaluation boards. We also have a very active sustainability office that has been setting up conditions to do science in an eco-friendly way. This office has also been active in outreach to institutes across member states, and supporting them with the best practices are and showing how it’s possible to make lab work actually sustainable and not harmful to the planet.

Where do you see the possibilities of cooperation with Alliance4Life?

There are definitely a lot of areas where we share interests or where we ask very similar questions. For example, data management and making data available for machine learning algorithms to be processed. This is definitely a considerable challenge for all life scientists. I think there can also be potential connections between our core facilities – we already collaborate extensively with CEITEC on this. I’m very excited to see further developments in your consortium and to see where you go next.

Ms. Markova said that Eastern and Central Europe is a very important region for EMBL. Why?

For historical reasons, these countries have only recently become members of EMBL and also they have had somewhat less time compared to Western European countries to integrate into the European scientific community. In my opinion, this might lead to institutes in Western Europe collaborating mainly within their region, and maybe also outside Europe with colleagues in the USA or Japan, just following an established tradition so to say. At EMBL, we would like to make the scientific community in the West more aware of the talent that is there in the Eastern and Central European countries, and the immense potential that is there that sometimes goes untapped and is as of yet not as visible.

Text: E. Rybárová, BMC SAS 
Foto: P. Ratajský, BMC SAS; Copyright © European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL)