300 keV FEG Electron Cryo Microscope for Tomography

分子和细胞电子冷冻断层扫描（cryoET）使研究大分子直接在其天然环境和天然浓度下的相互作用的合作伙伴。这是特别相关的基本生物过程的机械分析。在结合一系列方法来回答生物学问题的现代综合结构生物学方法中，cryoET发挥了核心作用，因为它位于来自（超分辨率）荧光显微镜的动态信息和来自X射线晶体学，NMR和单粒子cryoEM的最高分辨率结构信息的交叉路口。在感染生物学问题（汉堡的一个主要研究重点）的背景下，cryoET为研究宿主-病原体相互作用的各个水平提供了一个中心工具。通过Kay Grünewald的招聘，在冷冻ET，综合和相关的综合冷冻显微镜及其在汉堡的进一步发展方面有各自的专业知识。较厚细胞样品的CryoET具有特定的硬件和软件要求。其中包括非常稳定的样品台，可自动更换样品，高精度倾斜，能量过滤，相位板和最新一代直接电子探测器，可进行电子计数。与单粒子项目相比，cryoET项目更耗时，因此有理由在主要用户和具有各自生物应用的其他大学团体之间结合，使用专用和互补的仪器。

Molecular and cellular electron cryo tomography (cryoET) enables studies of macromolecules directly in their native environment and under native concentrations of their interaction partners. This is of particular relevance for mechanistic analyses of basic biological processes. In a modern integrative structural biology approach that combines a range of methods to answer a biological questions, cryoET takes a central role, as it sits at the cross road of dynamic information from (super-resolution-) fluorescence microscopy and highest resolution structural information from X-ray crystallography, NMR und single particle cryoEM. In the context of infection biology questions (a major research focus in Hamburg) cryoET provides a central tool for the investigation of the various levels of host-pathogen interactions. There is respective expertise in cryoET, integrative and correlative integrative cryo microscopies and their further advancement in Hamburg through the recruitment of Kay Grünewald. CryoET of thicker cellular samples has specific hard and software requirements. These include very stable sample stages with robotic sample changes, high-precision tilting, energy filtering, phase plates und latest generation direct electron detectors allowing for electron counting. In comparison to single particle projects cryoET projects are more time consuming and hence justify, combined between a major user and the range of other university groups with respective biological applications, a dedicated and complementary instrument that will be used to full capacity.