This article attempts to show how organizational structure operates as a source of emotional and functional stability for the production of scientific knowledge, as well as the logic of change, in successful scientific research groups in academia and the public sector. The paper presents the results of the organizational structure of two research groups--Immunochemistry and Immunology--in two dimensions: a) functional stabilization and relative permanence of a group, including composition, orientation, normative action, differentiation and leadership, and b) emotional stabilization, whose dimensions are belonging, in which the group member calculates the costs and benefits of being a member to attain ends, the construction of an ethos, roles, identities, and power in the logic of interaction. Also shown is the process of conforming a new group in Immunology during the consolidation of the trajectory of the Immunochemistry group, as a process of reproduction of research groups in new lines of specialized knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]