Located in Heidelberg, Germany, it was founded in 1973. With the support of the governments of 30 European member countries, it aims to promote cooperation among European countries to develop basic research in molecular biology and improve equipment and education. It is divided into seven parts: structure, differentiation, physical instrument, biochemical instrument, biological instrument, computer and applied mathematics. At present, the research has established an advanced nucleotide sequence database.

In addition to its headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, EMBL also has several branches in Europe: Hinkston, England, Grenoble, France, Hamburg, Germany and Monterotondo, Italy. Among them, EBI (European Bioinformatics Institute), a British bioinformatics institute, established an advanced nucleotide sequence database (EMBL-DNA) at 1982, which can be used for nucleotide sequence retrieval and sequence similarity query. Together with GenBank in the United States and DDBJ*** in Japan, this database constitutes a global international DNA database. In recent years, the database has developed rapidly, and the data volume has increased exponentially. With a good academic atmosphere of openness and innovation, EMBL has developed into the most important and core molecular biology basic research and education and training institution in Europe.

EMBL has made many important scientific advances, among which Forhad and Eric Wieschaus made a systematic genetic analysis of the embryonic development of Drosophila for the first time. Based on this work, they and American geneticist Edward B. Lewis won the 1995 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine. The study of developmental genetics by the three scientists is of great significance for unlocking the genetic secret of human development and applying it to the diagnosis of human diseases.