What is detected in cryo-em?

What is detected in cryo-em?

Cryo-EM is a decades-old technique that determines the shape of flash-frozen samples by firing electrons at them and recording the resulting images. Advances in technology for detecting the ricocheting electrons and in image-analysis software catalysed a ‘resolution revolution’ that started around 2013.

How much does Cryo-EM cost?

And cryo-EM has an overarching drawback: cost. Top-of-the-line, 300-kiloelectron volt (keV) cryo-EM machines are around USD 5–7 million, with added costs for space, service contracts, and experienced staff.

How much does a cryo-EM microscope cost?

A top machine costs about $7 million. Preparing a room and installing a microscope can cost just as much.

How much does a krios cost?

That effort relied on the field’s flagship instrument, the Titan/Krios, also made by Thermo Fisher. But a Krios can cost more than $6 million, and at 4 m tall it needs an inconveniently large lab.

What is cryo-EM good for?

The EMDB curates structures solved with other microscopy methods, but the vast majority use cryo-EM. These are used to reconstruct the 3D shape, or structure, of the molecule. Such structures are useful for uncovering how proteins work, how they malfunction in disease and how to target them with drugs.

Does cryo-EM require crystallization?

Because cryo-EM does not need crystallization of the target molecules, many molecules, especially the super-complexes that are either very hard to produce in large quantity or almost impossible to crystallize, are now possible to be determined at reasonably high resolution.

How much is a electron microscope?

The price of a new electron microscope can range from $80,000 to $10,000,000 depending on certain configurations, customizations, components, and resolution, but the average cost of an electron microscope is $294,000. The price of electron microscopes can also vary by type of electron microscope.

How is cryo-em done?

The technique involves flash-freezing solutions of proteins or other biomolecules and then bombarding them with electrons to produce microscope images of individual molecules. These are used to reconstruct the 3D shape, or structure, of the molecule.

What are the limitations of cryo-EM?

For high-resolution cryoEM, protein adsorption to the air-water interface has two drawbacks: (i) it often results in preferential particle orientation, a frequent cause of anisotropic resolution, and (ii) surface forces can disrupt the adsorbed particles partly or completely.

Why is cryo-EM important?

PROS. A major advantage of cryo-EM over x-ray crystallography is that the molecule of interest does not have to be crystallised. Some proteins or important macromolecules simply can not be crystallised; others have their structures irreversibly changed by crystallisation.

Is there a phase problem in cryo-EM?

Thus, cryo-EM structure determination does not have a “phase problem” as in X-ray crystallography, but its amplitudes are less accurate than that measured from X-ray diffractions.

What do you need for cryo-EM sample cooling?

Cryogenic Dewars, Shippers, Refrigerators for Cryo-EM sample cooling, storage, and transport. The instruments you need to prepare and plunge cool your grids for cryo-EM.

What is disdisposable plastic cryomold®?

Disposable plastic Cryomold® molds create a uniformly shaped, flat-surface specimen block when used with O.C.T. (optimum cutting temperature) compound (25608-930, sold separately) for frozen sectioning.

What is the cryo-EM platform?

The platform gives access to state-of-the-art cryo-EM equipment for structure determination projects using the latest technology and methods. The platform hosts a FEI Titan Krios G3 equipped with a phase plate and a Quantum-K3 camera and a 200 kV FEI Talos Arctica with an electron counting Falcon 3 camera.

How can external scientists use cryo-electron microscopy?

EMBL Heidelberg hosts a cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) service platform, available for use by external scientists with both single particle and tomography projects. Find out how to access here. The platform gives access to state-of-the-art cryo-EM equipment for structure determination projects using the latest technology and methods.