Who doesn’t know the phenomenon that with the end of the year approaching, the pages in the calendar are fading fast while the pile of work on the desk is just not keeping up with that pace?! Nonetheless, we took a break from the year’s-end hectic and glanced back on the EMBLEM highlights of 2017.

The year kickstarted with the announcement of a large multi-year alliance between EMBL and GSK to enhance the understanding of disease and drug mechanisms. The collaboration was forged by EMBLEM and we are excited to see what the joint projects under the umbrella of this collaboration will bring in the coming years.

The bright sunshine in May was even outshone by the acquisition of Luxendo, one of the latest EMBL spin-off companies which EMBLEM helped set-up, structure and oversee. Just 18 months after foundation Luxendo, which develops and sells state-of-the-art light sheet microscopes, now belongs to the Bruker family. Read more about the transaction here.

Throughout the whole year we have been busy developing several collaborations between the EMBL and partners from the industry and public sector. One example was in the in the field of neuroscience: AbbVie joined forces with EMBL Heidelberg to advance research in Alzheimer’s disease. And in another recent example the EBI together with the Pistoia Alliance released an Ontology Mapping Service for the industry to enhance data discoverability for pharmaceutical R&D. Discover more collaborations in the news section.

With the beginning of Fall the annual flu season was approaching fast. However, with the licensing deal of EMBL spin-off company Savira with the pharma giant Roche in the field of influenza treatment, we were looking forward to the cold season with confidence.

Just when the temperatures became freezing for the first time this winter, we could spread the hot news that the Open Targets public private partnership between EMBL-EBI, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, GSK, and Biogen has a new member: a warm welcome to Takeda, who joined the initiative in early December.

EMBLEM is looking back on a successful 2017. We would like to thank everyone who worked with us and made all these and the many more achievements possible. We will now get back to the piles on our desks to start working on the highlights for the next year. Stay tuned for more stories throughout 2018.