The origins of Greek research in biochemistry and molecular biology can be traced back in the mid sixties. It was then when the first research facility, namely, the Institute of Biology, was established at the Nuclear Research Center, Demokritos (http:// bio.demokritos.gr/). Its graduate student fellowship program was pivotal for the inspired training of a whole generation of future researchers. Almost a decade later, a second biological institute was established within the National Hellenic Research Foundation (www.eie.gr/nhrf/institutes/ibrb/index-gr.html), and this resulted in the first wave of repatriation of Greek scientists from abroad. It was in the same period that relevant basic research was also strengthened at the Greek branch of the Pasteur Institute (www.pasteur.gr). All these activities coincided with the founding of the first Biology departments in major Greek Universities (www.biol.uoa.gr, www.biology.upatras.gr, www.bio.auth.gr) and the organization of basic research units in medical schools. Thus, it was actually in the early to mid seventies that both the educational and research aspects of modern biology became a reality in the Greek scientific system.
The organized entry of Greek biological research in the era of recombinant DNA and modern biotechnology was achieved by the establishment in 1983 of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (www.imbb.forth.gr) in the island of Crete. In contrast to the ''old'' Institutes, the inspirers of this Institute gave priority to human potential and to a close collaboration with the local University.