Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a form of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) where biological samples are studied at cryogenic temperatures. It is becoming a more and more important technique in the field of structural biology, as has been manifested by many once hard-to-determine macromolecular structures. With the rapid advancement of both hardware and software, the resolution of cryo-EM maps is improving steadily. In some cases, near-atomic resolution had been obtained, including those of viruses, ribosomes, mitochondria, ion channels, and enzyme complexes as small as 150 kD.
However, very small proteins remain challenging to study using EM because of the difficulty in their visualization, alignment and validation. To address this technical challenge, Creative Biostructure is devoted to optimizing our EM protocol and making use of available resources to provide high-resolution imaging and three-dimensional reconstruction services for a broad spectrum of small proteins of interest. Our strategies include:
