Biozentrum University of Basel

The Biozentrum of the University of Basel specializes in basic molecular and biomedical research and teaching. Research includes the areas of cell growth and development, infection biology, neurobiology, structural biology and biophysics, and computational and systems biology. With more than 550 employees, the Biozentrum is the largest department at the University of Basel's Faculty of Science. It is home to 30 research groups with scientists from 45 nations.

In 1971, at the time when the Biozentrum was founded, the concept of developing an interdisciplinary biological research facility was unique in Europe. Scientists from academy and industry as well as representatives of the Canton of Basel-Stadt promoted the Biozentrum’s development.

In the winter semester 1972/73 the first students enrolled for the new "Biology II" curriculum. It encompassed a two-year foundation course in mathematics, physics and chemistry as well as a cycle of block courses – a new teaching format. In 1976 the first students received their diplomas. In 1978 the Biozentrum became a department of the University of Basel. In the same year, one of the founding professors, Werner Arber, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the restriction enzymes.

With the incorporation of the Maurice E. Müller Institute in 1986, the Biozentrum became a competence center for high resolution electron microscopy. It also established a platform for nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Cooperation with the Institute for Immunology (Hofmann-La Roche) and the Friedrich Miescher Institute (Ciba/Geigy) became ever closer and networking more and more important: In 1996, what is now the "Center of Competence and Excellence in Neuroscience" was founded. Then "Neurex", the largest tri-national alliance of neurobiologists, was set up. The "Basel Signalling Alliance", the "Neuroscience Network Basel", and the "Basel Stem Cell Network" followed. And finally, the Basel Translational Medicine Hub was established to further personalized medicine.

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