Forum 04/22/2004

“Realizing the potential of electron cryo-microscopy”

Richard Henderson – MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, U.K.

Structural analysis by electron microscopy of biological macromolecules or macromolecular assemblies embedded in rapidly frozen, vitreous ice has made great advances during the last few years.   CryoEM, can now be used to analyse the structures of molecules arranged in the form of two-dimensional crystals, helical arrays or as single particles with or without symmetry.   Although it has been possible, using crystalline or helical specimens, to reach a resolution adequate to build atomic models (4 ngstroms), there is every hope this will soon also be possible with single particles.