In April, 1983 the Federal Government allocated a sum of 1.635 million rupees to create a nucleus laboratory of the centre.

In November, 1985 the proposal to establish the Centre for Advanced Molecular Biology (CAMB) was approved at a cost of 24.55 million rupees.

In 1986, the CAMB project was upgraded into a Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB) and the cost of setting it up was subsequently revised in January 1991, to 44.33 million rupees.

In April 1987, the Federal Ministry of Science & Technology (MOST) approved the establishment of a Centre for Applied Molecular Biology (CAMB), located back to back with the laboratory block of the Centre of Excellence in Molecular Biology (CEMB).

Construction work on the CEMB building started in 1987 on a site located in Lahore's southern suburb of Thokar Niaz Baig along the Canal.