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Combining high throughput and high quality for cryo‐electron microscopy data collection
Author(s) -
Weis Felix,
Hagen Wim J. H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
acta crystallographica section d
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 7.374
H-Index - 138
ISSN - 2059-7983
DOI - 10.1107/s2059798320008347
Subject(s) - cryo electron microscopy , electron microscope , throughput , microscopy , resolution (logic) , electron tomography , microscope , single particle analysis , detector , computer science , cryo electron tomography , optics , materials science , artificial intelligence , physics , tomography , scanning transmission electron microscopy , nuclear magnetic resonance , telecommunications , aerosol , meteorology , wireless
Cryo‐electron microscopy (cryo‐EM) can be used to elucidate the 3D structure of macromolecular complexes. Driven by technological breakthroughs in electron‐microscope and electron‐detector development, coupled with improved image‐processing procedures, it is now possible to reach high resolution both in single‐particle analysis and in cryo‐electron tomography and subtomogram‐averaging approaches. As a consequence, the way in which cryo‐EM data are collected has changed and new challenges have arisen in terms of microscope alignment, aberration correction and imaging parameters. This review describes how high‐end data collection is performed at the EMBL Heidelberg cryo‐EM platform, presenting recent microscope implementations that allow an increase in throughput while maintaining aberration‐free imaging and the optimization of acquisition parameters to collect high‐resolution data.