Acquisition of a cryogenic holder for cryo-electron microscopy

细胞有精心设计的系统来组织它们的内部空间，包括形成专门的隔室和骨架状结构的能力，以确保细胞组件的正确定位。保持正确的内部细胞组织在所有形式的生命中都是至关重要的。我的研究旨在了解细菌细胞中的复杂组织。我们通过研究驱动这些组织过程的微小分子机器的结构来做到这一点，让我们深入了解它们是如何发挥作用的。我们可以使用的最强大的工具之一是使用现代电子显微镜检查三维分子络合物的能力。为了实现三维结构，样品必须快速冷冻，这样才能保持其精细结构。然后我们面临的挑战是在转移到显微镜和成像过程中将样品保持在极低的温度下。这需要专门的样品保持器，可以保持在液氮温度(-196摄氏度)附近，同时保持足够的稳定性，以便在我们以高倍率获取样品图像时不会漂移。这项提议需要一个最先进的冷冻器，它将使我们能够以高分辨率三维可视化单个分子结构。

Cells have elaborate systems for organizing their internal spaces, including the ability to form specialized compartments and skeleton-like structures that ensure proper positioning of cellular components. Maintaining the correct internal cellular organization is critically important in all forms of life. My research is aimed at understanding complex organization in bacterial cells. We do this by studying the structures of the tiny molecular machines that drive these organizing processes to give us insight into how they function. One of the most powerful tools at our disposal is the ability to examine molecular complexes in three dimensions using modern electron microscopes. In order to achieve three-dimensional structures samples must be rapidly frozen, which preserves their fine structure. The challenge we then face is maintaining the samples at extremely low temperatures during transfer into the microscope and during imaging. This requires specialized sample holders, which can be maintained near the temperature of liquid nitrogen (-196 degrees C), while remaining stable enough to not drift while we acquire images of our samples at high magnification. This proposal requests a state-of-the-art cryo holder, which will allow us to visualize individual molecular structures at high resolution in three dimensions.