Following the resolution revolution in cryo-EM in 2013 from novel camera technology and better image processing algorithms, the Nobel prize in Chemistry 2017 was awarded to Joachim Frank, Richard Henderson and Jacques Dubochet for their contributions to the development of cryo-EM.

Jacques Dubochet studied physics in the institution that later became the EPFL, and he is today an Emeritus professor of the University of Lausanne. After the Nobel prize, EPFL and UNIL decided to team up and commonly create the Dubochet Center for Imaging (DCI). This initiative was soon joined by the University of Geneva.

The DCI-Lausanne was established in a temporary location in the Cubotron building in 2021 and inaugurated in December 2021 with two Titan Krios and one Glacios as instruments.

Today, the DCI is a multi-campus initiative, consisting of the DCI-Lausanne, hosted by the EPFL and the University of Lausanne, and of the DCI-Geneva, hosted by the University of Geneva.