ELIBIO Laboratory Opening

The Biological Laboratory of the ELIBIO project at ELI Beamlines was officially opened 20^th of January 2021 by Robert Plaga the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Eva Zažímalová the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Michael Prouza Director of the Insitute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The laboratory was built as a part of the ongoing ELIBIO project, a collaboration between ELI Beamlines and the Institute of Biotechnology. This project has established an interdisciplinary Centre of Excellence to explore new frontiers in light and optics with the aim to create breakthrough science in biology, chemistry and physics. The collaboration has already produced outstanding results in the fields of biological structure, function and dynamics with nearly 70 scientific publications.

The current pandemic and the extraordinarily swift scientific response to develop a vaccine has highlighted both the risks of more viral diseases spreading in a globally connected world and the need for advanced tools to see, in great detail, viruses and their component parts. To enhance ELI’s capability in this areabut plans were presented to establish an electron microscopy facility at ELI Beamlines to extend its ability to see biological structures at the subcellular level and to act as a critical resource in tackling global healthcare threats.