The Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI), based in Basel, Switzerland, is a world class biomedical research institute dedicated to understanding the fundamental mechanisms of health and disease. It is named after Friedrich Miescher, the Basel biochemist who discovered nucleic acids in 1869 – just over 100 years before the FMI was etablished in 1970.

The FMI has an international staff of about 330 people, from over 40 countries, and 19 research groups whose main areas of focus are Neurobiology, Genome Regulation and Multicellular Systems. In addition, the institute has set up strong technology platforms enabling ambitious, interdisciplinary research, and allowing staff to be trained in the use of state-of-the-art technologies. The FMI has gained international recognition as a center of excellence in innovative biomedical research.

Training early career scientists – graduate students and postdoctoral fellows – is also part of the mission of the FMI. Our PhD and MD-PhD programs attract top international students. The institute is affiliated with the University of Basel, where most of our graduate students are enrolled and where many of our group leaders are employed as professors.

The FMI is also affiliated with Novartis Biomedical Research. Our institute receives generous core funding from the Novartis Research Foundation, our researchers are involved in numerous collaborations with colleagues at Novartis and Novartis has first right of refusal on intellectual property originating from the FMI. The long-term support of the FMI shows Novartis’ commitment to basic research and the education of young scientists.

Funding is supplemented by competitive grants and fellowships from national and international funding agencies. The FMI used to have the highest success rate for ERC grant application of all European institutions (read more) before Switzerland dropped out of Horizon Europe – hopefully only momentarily. (Our scientists now have the opportunity to apply for SNSF Advanced grants instead).

The FMI is currently led by Professor Dirk Schübeler.