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The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) is a famous scientific institution located in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. (It is not connected with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.) It was founded in 1888, patterned on the Naples Zoological Station, as an independent research institution emphasizing both teaching and research. MBL is the oldest private research institution in the United States.

The MBL became a sort of working summer resort for distinguished biologists from all over the country. Lewis Thomas, in several essays in the 1970s (eg, the collection 'Lives of a Cell') praised the MBL arrangement in luminous prose.

MBL logo.

MBL has historically concentrated on the use of marine animals as model organisms for the study of fundamental problems in biology. Areas such as ecology and systematics are studied too, but are not what MBL is primarily known for. A famous example is use of the squid, Loligo pealii, which has a giant nerve axon that is much more amenable to study than those of other organisms; Alan Lloyd Hodgkin and Andrew Fielding Huxley first eludicated many of the fundamental mechanisms of nerve cells by studying these axons at MBL, work for which they won a Nobel prize in 1963. Using sea urchin eggs, Tim Hunt discovered cyclins, an important molecule in the regulation of the cell cycle. Hunt won the Nobel Prize in 2001. Matthew Meselson and Frank Stahl met one summer at the MBL and conceived their famous experiment demonstrating semi-conservative replication of DNA (see Meselson-Stahl Experiment)*. In all, over 50 Nobel laureates have studied, taught, or researched at MBL over the years.

The MBL library displays two historical documents. The first is a conspicuous, framed enlargement of Louis Agassiz' dictum, in his own handwriting: "Study nature, not books." The second is a handwritten note from embryologist Katsuma Dan, posted at the end of World War II on the door of the Misaki Marine Station, pleading eloquently for the American forces to spare the research facilities and to "let us come back to our scientific home."

MBL is home to a year-round staff of more than 275 scientists and support staff who are working in such fields as cell and developmental biology, ecology, microbiology, molecular evolution, global infectious disease, neurobiology, and sensory physiology. During the summer ca. 1400 scientists and advanced students from around the world visit MBL to conduct experiments and participate in educational programs. These educational program consist of six major summer courses and approximately one dozen special topics courses. The institute plays an important role in training the world's finest experimental biologists.

Message to American Forces posted by Katsuma Dan on the door of the Misaki Marine Biological Station at the end of World War II. Now on display in the MBL library.

• Holmes, FL (2001) Meselson, Stahl, and the Replication of DNA: A History of 'The Most Beautiful Experiment in Biology'. Yale University Press, New Haven CT. ISBN 0-300-08540-0

• MBL's website
• Katsuma Dan's plea