Research
EMBL Monterotondo campus
The EMBL Monterotondo outstation is 20 km north of Rome, in a green riverside campus that it shares with Italian national research groups (IBC-CNR) and the headquarters of the European Mouse Mutant Archive (EMMA). Central Rome is a short train ride away, and the surrounding Lazio countryside features medieval hill towns, spectacular mountain terrain and lakes for hiking, biking, skiing and swimming in the delightful Mediterranean climate.
EMBL Monterotondo houses the Mouse Biology Unit, where research groups use the powerful tools of mouse functional genomics and advanced genetic manipulation to investigate wide ranging aspects of mammalian biology including development and differentiation, cancer and regeneration, behaviour and sensory perception. The collective work of PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and staff in these groups has established EMBL Monterotondo as a hub for international mouse research. Dynamic partnerships and exchanges with other international academic research and clinical centres, and participation in multiple EU-wide mouse research and informatics initiatives, serve to disseminate our discoveries in genetics/genomics, cell biology and pathophysiology. Amongst the groups, collaborative studies focus on developmental neurobiology, genetic and pharmacologic manipulations of adult behaviour, inflammation and regenerative processes, stem cell biology, microRNAmediated control of gene expression, mechanisms of pain perception and biomedical applications.
Laboratory at EMBL Monterotondo
Excellent core facilities are at the heart of EMBL research culture. A state-of-the-art animal facility provides a full range of mouse transgenic and gene knockout production, embryo rederivation and cryopreservation services, and a fully-equipped phenotyping suite. The continued refinement of genetic and epigenetic perturbations through the use of conditional and inducible mouse mutations at the outstation is generating ever more accurate models of human disease and multigenic disorders, providing a wide array of technologies to the scientific community. Other centralised core facilities include histology, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and monoclonal antibody production. Interaction with groups at other EMBL campuses through the Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral (EIPOD) Fellowship Programme provides exciting new prospects for joint projects. Partnerships established with Imperial College London and its associated hospitals and with the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) in Barcelona add additional opportunities for translational research.
Training activities at EMBL Monterotondo focus on mouse genetic manipulation in collaboration with local faculty at CNR, EMMA and the Jackson Laboratory. A popular initiative organised by the European Learning Laboratory for the Life Sciences (ELLS) to train international and Italian secondary teachers in current biological themes reflects EMBL’s longstanding tradition of transmitting new information and expertise to local society. An international seminar series and a visiting researcher programme, together with active collaborations with research groups throughout the world, integrates the science at EMBL Monterotondo with the international mouse biological community.
Nadia Rosenthal
Head of EMBL Monterotondo