In Spain, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Spanish government is opening a new lab, the first in over 18 years for EMBL, to study tissues and organs. The new lab in Spain will focus on how cells interact on the molecular biology level and will have high tech imaging and modelling of tissues and organs. It will host several research groups and will be based in Barcelona which is considered a key bioscience hub for southern Europe.
Past work in Barcelona on genomics and proteomics impressed EMBL and led to their decision to open a full lab there and to invest €16 million over 5 years. Spain is adding another €6 million over the next four years and the Catalan government will pay for the annual €400,000 rent and maintenance fee. Based in Germany, EMBL is an international organization focused on structural biology and biomedical research.