page_title: Cryogenic electron microscopy
hierarchical_section_title: Cryogenic electron microscopy
caption_attribution_description: English: Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM) image of an intact ARMAN cell from an Iron Mountain biofilm taken by Luis R. Comolli. Scale: image 576 nm by side.
context_page_description: Cryogenic electron microscopy is an electron microscopy technique applied on samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures and embedded in an environment of vitreous water. An aqueous sample solution is applied to a grid-mesh and plunge-frozen in liquid ethane or a mixture of liquid ethane and propane. While development of the technique began in the 1970s, recent advances in detector technology and software algorithms have allowed for the determination of biomolecular structures at near-atomic resolution. This has attracted wide attention to the approach as an alternative to X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy for macromolecular structure determination without the need for crystallization.
  In 2017, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution." Nature Methods also named cryo-EM as the "Method of the Year" in 2016.
context_section_description: Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is an electron microscopy (EM) technique applied on samples cooled to cryogenic temperatures and embedded in an environment of vitreous water. An aqueous sample solution is applied to a grid-mesh and plunge-frozen in liquid ethane or a mixture of liquid ethane and propane. While development of the technique began in the 1970s, recent advances in detector technology and software algorithms have allowed for the determination of biomolecular structures at near-atomic resolution. This has attracted wide attention to the approach as an alternative to X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy for macromolecular structure determination without the need for crystallization.
  In 2017, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson "for developing cryo-electron microscopy for the high-resolution structure determination of biomolecules in solution." Nature Methods also named cryo-EM as the "Method of the Year" in 2016.
caption: Cryogenic transmission electron microscopy (cryoTEM) image of an intact ARMAN cell from an Iron Mountain biofilm. Image width is 576 nm.
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