Market Assessment for Ultrastable Cryo-electron Microscopy Holder

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

One important technical problem in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), when trying to attain atomically resolved 3D structures of frozen hydrated specimens, is the negative effect on the resolution due to the vibration from liquid nitrogen cooling. Sample holders for cryo-EM have so far relied on the use of a Dewar with liquid nitrogen to cool down sample to temperatures below 130K. The use of liquid nitrogen is often inconvenient and difficult to implement. Water crystallization inside the Dewar and relative hot spots may induce vibration through bubbling, limiting the attainable spatial resolution. Significant user expertise is required under such adverse conditions to perform single particle cryo-EM experiments and successfully achieve atomic spatial resolution (below 0.3 nm). There is thus a need for cryo-EM holder design that is stable (minimal to no vibration) and can provide prolonged cooling periods, hence longer viewing**times.**Waterloo researchers have designed a cryo-EM holder that does not require the use of liquid nitrogen and thus avoids the constant refilling step inherent with this method and allows imaging at any arbitrary sample tilt angle with no liquid spills. The novel Waterloo holder is quasi-vibration free and provides lower temperatures than conventional cryo-EM holders based on liquid nitrogen cooling. A provisional US patent application will be filed very soon.****