Welcome to the EBI

The European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI) is a non-profit academic organisation that forms part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL).

The EBI is a centre for research and services in bioinformatics. The Institute manages databases of biological data including nucleic acid, protein sequences and macromolecular structures.

Our Mission

To provide freely available data and bioinformatics services to all facets of the scientific community in ways that promote scientific progress
To contribute to the advancement of biology through basic investigator-driven research in bioinformatics
To provide advanced bioinformatics training to scientists at all levels, from PhD students to independent investigators
To help disseminate cutting-edge technologies to industry

EMBL-EBI articles are top of the list

Nov 20, 2009 - Articles on three resources hosted by EMBL-EBI (PDBe, Ensembl Genomes and Gene Expression Atlas) are highlighted as featured articles in the latest Database issue of Nucleic Acids Research. Featured articles are selected by the journal's Executive Editors based upon their originality, significance and scientific excellence... more

UK leads European research programme with £10M investment in bioscience data handling capacity

Aug 25, 2009 - The UK has made its first substantial commitment to a major emerging pan-European science project with a £10M investment by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC). BBSRC has awarded funding to the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute to permit a dramatic increase in the institute’s data storage and handling capacity... more

Launch of the first standard graphical notation for biology

Aug 07, 2009 - EBI researchers and their colleagues in 30 labs worldwide have released a new set of standards for graphically representing biological information. This visual language should make it easier to exchange complex information, so that models are accurate, efficient and readily understandable. The new standard, called the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN), is published today in Nature Biotechnology... more

EMBL-EBI Director Janet Thornton awarded an ISCB Accomplishment by a Senior Scientist Award

Jul 08, 2009 - Janet Thornton, Director of EMBL-EBI, has been awarded a Senior Scientist Award by the ISCB Fellows Programme in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the fields of computational biology and bioinformatics. The award was made at the ISMB/ECCB 2009 conference in Stockholm, Sweden... more

EMBL-EBI and University of Manchester launch major new e- science resource

Jul 01, 2009 - Biocatalogue.org - a curated registry of web services for the life sciences - is launched today. Biocatalogue will make it easier for scientists to find bioinformatics services that meet their research needs by providing a single search point. Providers, expert curators and users monitor the catalogue and provide high quality information on each service, including ratings. This type of systematic access has the potential to significantly accelerate the work of biomedical researchers The project has been led by Prof Carole Goble at The University of Manchester and Rodrigo Lopez at EMBL-EBI... more

Gerard Kleywegt to head Protein Data Bank Europe

Jun 30, 2009 - From 1 July 2009, Gerard Kleywegt will lead the Protein Data Bank Europe (PDBe) project. Gerard has served on the PDBe Scientific Advisory Board for the last few years and has been on the wwPDB advisory committee. Gerard will replace Kim Henrick, who has headed the PDBe since 2001... more

Sweden is the first country to pledge long-term funding for ELIXIR

Jun 23, 2009 - The Swedish funding agencies (the Swedish Energy Agency, Fas, Formas, the Swedish Research Council and VINNOVA) have suggested the government to allocate a total of 19 million SEK (1.7 million Euro) over three years to ELIXIR and the Swedish Bioinformatics Infrastructure for Life Sciences (BILS), which would make Sweden the first country to secure long-term funding for ELIXIR. The Swedish government has expressed its intention to substantially increase research funding in several strategic areas, including national infrastructures, and a final decision along these lines is expected during the autumn 2009.
Bioinformatics is increasingly important in the interpretation of these data. We are therefore very enthusiastic about this new long-term funding for the BILS bioinformatics infrastructure in Sweden, which works within a European perspective and interacts closely with ELIXIR"... more

Mapping gene expression with Gene Expression Atlas

Jun 15, 2009 - Today, researchers at EMBL-EBI launch a new database, the Gene Expression Atlas, which allows scientists to search and compare gene expression data at unprecedented detail and scope. Observing how gene expression varies in different cell types, tissues and under disease conditions can help researchers understand gene function and to develop new drugs and therapies...more

Launch of new Ensembl Genomes and new-look Ensembl website means more genome power at your fingertips

Apr 20, 2009 - Today sees the release of Ensembl Genomes, a web-based browser that allows anyone to examine the genomes of much of life on earth. Ensembl Genomes is the new younger sibling of the Ensembl genome browser, which opens up the power of Ensembl to non-vertebrate species - plants, fungi, bacteria, metazoa and protists - for the first time... more

A census of human transcription factors reveals their secrets

Mar 10, 2009 - By incorporating publicly available genomic data sets and analysing over 1,000 transcription factors, Juanma Vaquerizas, a researcher in the Luscombe group at EMBL-EBI and his colleagues have provided new understanding of how transcription factors in humans might operate. The study is published online in advance of publication in Nature Reviews Genetics... more

Re-write the textbooks: transcription is bidirectional

Jan 26, 2009 - A genome wide study of transcription in yeast has redefined the concept of promoters. Researchers in the groups of Lars Steinmetz at EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany, and Wolfgang Huber at EMBL-EBI in Hinxton, UK, have unravelled how yeast generates its transcripts and have come a step closer to understanding their function. The study is published online in the current issue of Nature... more

First version of SBGN language released today

Aug 23, 2008 - We are pleased to announce the specification of Process Diagrams of the Systems Biology Graphical Notation (SBGN). The goal of SBGN is to standardise the graphical representation of essential biochemical and cellular processes. Standardising graphical notations for describing biological interactions is an important step towards the efficient communication of biological knowledge between different communities. More information on SBGN and SBGN Process Diagram Level 1 can be found here

A one-stop shop for minimal information standards

Aug 07, 2008 - More than 20 standardisation groups, led by scientists at the EMBL-EBI and the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH), have combined forces to form the "Minimum Information about a Biomedical or Biological Investigation" (MIBBI) initiative. Their aim is to harmonise standards for high-throughput biology, and their methodology is published today in Nature Biotechnology... more | paper

Calcium control of molecular learning

Aug 01, 2008 - Our capacity to learn and remember is controlled by the fine tuning of intracellular calcium signalling in our brains. In an article published in the journal PNAS, scientists at the EBI describe how calmodulin, a small protein enriched in our neurons, measures calcium concentration and regulates synaptic behaviour through the activation of proteins CaMKII and calcineurin... more

Open access to large-scale drug discovery data

Jul 23, 2008 - The Wellcome Trust has awarded £4.7 million (€5.8 million) to EMBL's European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) to support the transfer of a large collection of information on the properties and activities of drugs and a large set of drug-like small molecules from publicly listed company Galapagos NV to the public domain... more

European Genotype Archive launched for personal genome information

Jul 14, 2008 - Launch of secure archive of genetic data at European Bioinformatics Institute... more

EBI becomes new host of Europe's raw sequence information

Jul 14, 2008 - European Bioinformatics Institute receives boost to secure archives of sequencing data ... more

Zooming in on genetic shuffling

Jul 09, 2008 - Scientists at EMBL in Heidelberg and the EBI in Hinxton, Cambridge, have generated the most precise map of genetic recombination ever. Genetic recombination leads to offspring with a new genetic make-up and influences the course of evolution. The study, published in the current issue of Nature, has implications for the tracking of disease genes and their inheritance... more

Scientists fix bugs in our understanding of evolution

Jun 19, 2008 - A new computational tool developed by EBI researchers allows the most accurate insights into evolution ever... more

X chromosome exposed

May 30, 2008 - Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) in Hinxton, UK, have revealed new insights into how sex chromosomes are regulated. An enzyme that binds differently to male and female sex chromosomes helps males to produce the same amount of proteins as females... more

Securing the future of Europe’s biological data resources

May 28, 2008 - In a contract signed today, the European Commission has awarded €4.5 million to the pan-European ELIXIR consortium, coordinated by the EMBL-EBI. The ELIXIR project aims to decide upon the best way to unite Europe’s biological data resources into a sustainable, integrative bioinformatics network for the life sciences... more

Sanger Institute and European Bioinformatics Institute top list of most influential UK research

May 01, 2008 - The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the EMBL-European Bioinformatics Institute have been rated as the top two most influential research institutions in the UK, according to results published this week. In addition, nine of the top 25 most influential UK researchers work at the Wellcome Trust Genome Campus near Cambridge, home to the two powerhouse institutes... more

Strength of European rat genetics research highlighted in special focus issue of Nature Genetics

Apr 29, 2008 - Researchers from EMBL-EBI are among those who co-author seven articles in Nature Genetics as part of the EU funded project “European Rat Tools for Functional Genomics (EURATools)”. The articles demonstrate the remarkable advances made in rat genetics since the sequencing of the rat genome four years ago... more

International consortium announces the 1000 Genomes Project

Jan 22, 2008 - Hinxton, 22 January 2008 – The EBI is part of an international research consortium that today announced the 1000 Genomes Project, an ambitious effort to sequence the genomes of at least 1000 people to create the most detailed and medically useful catalogue to date of human genetic variation... more

Scientific Meetings in 2008

Dec 17, 2007 - Join us at upcoming meetings on 'Statistical and Computational Challenges in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution' at the Royal Society in London, 'High Dimensional Statistics in Biology' at Cambridge's Newton Institute and Advanced Training Workshop in 'Bioinformatics of Membrane Proteins' at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Hinxton.

ArrayExpress database doubles in size to 100,000 hybridisations

Dec 11, 2007 - ArrayExpress, the publicly available database of transcriptomics data at the EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), has doubled in size in 2007, reaching the 100,000-hybridisation milestone. The database now holds snapshots of gene expression for more than 180 species under thousands of experimental conditions... more

The East Wing and a new dawn for the EMBL-EBI

Oct 23, 2007 - The European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) officially opens its new East Wing today with a reception for prominent guests. The East Wing will be jointly opened by Ian Pearson, Minister of State for Science and Innovation, UK, and Robert-Jan Smits, Director of Directorate B (Structuring the European Research Area), DG Research, European Commission... more

Minimum Information Standards – all for one and one for all

Aug 26, 2007 - Three Nature Biotechnology papers published by EMBL scientists and their collaborators will make it much easier to share and compare information from large-scale proteomics data. The MIAPE and MIMIx guidelines propose the range of information to be recorded to document proteomics and molecular interaction data, respectively... more

EBI publications

August 15, 2007 - The EBI produces a range of publications to present its background, research, scientific progress, resources, training activities and news announcements. These can be viewed and downloaded from the EBI brochures and fact sheet page.

Bioinformatics training at the EBI

Aug 20, 2007 - The EMBL-EBI is proud to announce its new in-house training programme that utilises the state-of-the-art training facilities forming part of the newly completed East Wing. The 2007/2008 training programme will commence in early September and provide expert training in the many bioinformatics resources residing at the EBI... more

Uncovering the secrets of the deep

Jul 30, 2007 - The UniProt Consortium, which includes the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), has added a new database repository for metagenomic and environmental data to its family of protein sequence databases. The UniProt Metagenomic and Environmental Sequences (UniMES) database currently contains the data from the Global Ocean Sampling Expedition (GOS)... more

£5.9 million award gives UK ageing research a new lease of life

Jun 14, 2007 - Research into ageing has received a major boost thanks to a £5.9 million Strategic Award from the Wellcome Trust, the UK's largest medical research charity. The award has been made to Professor Linda Partridge, Professor Dominic Withers and Dr David Gems at UCL (University College London), and to Professor Janet Thornton at the European Bioinformatics Institute... more

New findings challenge established views about human genome

Jun 13, 2007 - The ENCyclopedia Of DNA Elements (ENCODE), an international research consortium organised by the NHGRI, today published the results of its exhaustive, four-year effort to build a “parts list” of all biologically functional elements in 1 percent of the human genome in the journal Nature. The analysis was led by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory’s European Bioinformatics Institute... more

EBI consolidates management of sequence data

Jun 07, 2007 - Today the European Bioinformatics Institute announces a major reorganisation of its processing of biomolecular sequence information. This will affect EMBL-Bank, UniProt and the EBI team working on Ensembl (which is a joint project with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute)... more

First public nucleotide sequence database turns 25

May 22, 2007 - Today EMBL-Bank, the nucleotide sequence database of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), celebrates its 25th anniversary. It was the world’s earliest public database of DNA and RNA sequences and remains Europe’s primary nucleotide sequence resource. The database is maintained by EMBL’s European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton (UK) in collaboration with GenBank (US) and the DNA Databank of Japan... more

Therapeutic Applications of Computational Biology and Chemistry, 11-13 March 2007

Jan 24, 2007 - Register NOW for TACBAC. The registration deadline for is Friday 16th February. The purpose of this broad and multidisciplinary meeting is to explore the major challenges in drug discovery and development where innovation in computational approaches and tools can really make a significant contribution towards providing solutions. You should attend this conference if you are developing or using computational approaches to therapeutics development, or if you are a key decision maker in a pharmaceutical or biotechnology company... more

Community consultation: have your say in standards development

Jan 09, 2007 - The EBI has contributed to seven standards papers currently under consideration for publication in Nature Biotechnology. Please participate in the development of these standards by sending your comments to Nature Biotechnology... more

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