Monash joins European molecular biology lab

Monash University has been given associated membership status of EMBL, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory.

Australia is the first and only country outside Europe to be granted this status with the world's pre-eminent molecular biology research institution.

EMBL is a European hub of life science research, with a network of five nodes. The main laboratory is in Heidelberg, Germany, with outstations in Hamburg, Grenoble, Hinxton in the UK and Monterotondo in Italy.

Associate membership of the EMBL will encourage and facilitate interaction between the Australian molecular biology community and EMBL, Monash said.

Deputy vice-chancellor (research), Professor Edwina Cornish, said the decision was a vote of confidence in the high standard of Australian bioscience research and that there would be significant benefits to Monash University.

The decision, announced in Germany today, means that Monash University is now in the running to host EMBL research groups at its Clayton campus.

"Monash University is already an established centre of research excellence in biomedical and stem cell sciences and this new international collaboration will create many exciting opportunities for linking with the best in the world," Cornish said in a statement.

Financial support for associate membership of EMBL has been provided by the federal government through NCRIS, in partnership with Monash, the universities of Western Australia, Sydney and Queensland, and the CSIRO.