Laboratory of Molecular Biology
From 1976 to 1980, Metspalu was a junior scientist at Laboratory of Molecular Biology, University of Tartu. From 1981 to 1982, he was an IREX fellow at Columbia University. He returned to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology as a Senior Scientist, then from 1985 to 1992 was head of the Laboratory of Gene Expression at Tartu University. From 1986 to 1992, he was Research Director of the Estonian Biocentre. During that period he also visited the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics, the University of Tampere, and the University of Hamburg.