{"id":562,"date":"2021-06-01T05:23:27","date_gmt":"2021-06-01T05:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.acceleratingscience.com\/atomic-resolution\/2021\/06\/01\/whats-possible-cryo-electron-tomography\/"},"modified":"2021-06-01T05:23:27","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T05:23:27","slug":"whats-possible-cryo-electron-tomography","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thermofisher.com\/blog\/atomic-resolution\/whats-possible-cryo-electron-tomography\/","title":{"rendered":"Molecular Clarity\u2014Discovering What\u2019s Possible with Cryo-Electron Tomography"},"content":{"rendered":"

More than a century ago, renowned mathematician Johan Radon provided the mathematical framework for tomographic reconstruction. Many years later, in 1968, David DeRosier and Aaron Klug published a milestone Nature paper<\/a> reconstructing for the first time a three-dimensional bacteriophage tail from its two-dimensional projections.<\/p>\n

This marked the dawn of modern electron tomography\u2014a technique that reveals the internal structure of an object through various projections recorded using an electron beam that illuminates the specimen.<\/p>\n

Cryo-electron tomography<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Today, after decades of developing this method, which included advancements in cryo techniques to obtain intact biomolecules in the hydrated state and achieve conditions for non-destructive irradiation in the electron microscope, cryo-electron tomography achieves unsurpassed levels of resolution.<\/p>\n

Read more in Nature: The secret lives of cells\u2014as never seen before. Cutting-edge microscopy techniques are allowing researchers to spy on the innards of cells in all their crowded glory. >><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\"Cryo-electron<\/p>\n

Cryo-electron tomography reveals a phase-separated protein degradation microcompartment where proteasomes (red) cluster at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane (cytosolic ribosomes: light blue; membrane-bound ribosomes: dark blue; Cdc48: yellow; membranes: white; Protein structures obtained by subtomogram averaging and subsequently mapped back into the cellular tomogram). Data courtesy of Dr. Benjamin Engel, Helmholtz Zentrum M\u00fcnchen<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Bridging the gap between structural biology methods and existing light microscopy techniques, cryo-electron tomography provides three-dimensional imagery and snapshots from the native cell interior.<\/p>\n

It enables the study of how proteins and other molecules work together to carry out major processes in a cell, transforming our view of how cells function and giving us new biological insights that no other method provides.<\/p>\n

Thanks to technological progress, increased digitization, and transformative advances in the areas of detection, sample preparation<\/a>, and automation, cryo-electron tomography advanced to what it is today: a soon-to-be fundamental piece in our imaging toolbox with enormous potential in cell biology research.<\/p>\n

Explore a curated collection of scientific publications highlighting the use of cryo-electron tomography with our new <\/em>Cryo-Electron Tomography e-Book<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n

What\u2019s possible: a new age for cellular biology<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I am continuously fascinated by the research results flowing in from across different fields of application as a direct result of cryo-electron tomography.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve learned of cellular structures that were previously difficult to visualize, like degradation microcompartments at the endoplasmic reticulum membrane<\/a> (2020); large macromolecular assemblies with an intricate architecture<\/a>, such as nuclear pore complexes, which can now be elucidated in their cellular context (2020); and disease-related ultrastructural changes that are unveiled\u2014most recently, a kinase linked to Parkinson\u2019s disease that was solved by in-situ tomography<\/a> (2020) or neurotoxic protein aggregates stalling the cellular protein degradation machinery<\/a> (2018).<\/p>\n

Our role at Thermo Fisher Scientific is to help biologists maintain this momentum through continued technological innovation, and to make sure they maximize the far-reaching impacts cryo-EM could have across their research<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), including the Thermo Scientific Krios G4 Cryo-TEM<\/a> and Glacios Cryo-TEM<\/a>, enable higher throughput at increased levels of automation than ever before. At the same time, Cryo-FIB technology, including the Thermo Scientific Aquilos 2 Cryo-FIB<\/a>, evolved into a game-changing method for sample preparation for tomography\u2014enabling biologists to literally open windows (cryo-lamellae) into functional cellular environments.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re excited to also announce our latest innovation in cryo-EM\u2014the Thermo Scientific iFLM Correlative System<\/a>, a must-have component for the Aquilos 2 Cryo-FIB and our first integrated fluorescence light microscope.<\/p>\n