Three life science research centres in Asia have selected FEI's Titan Krios transmission electron microscope (Tem) to support research into structural molecular biology.
The Titan Krios is based on FEI's Titan Tem platform and combines the power of the Titan electron optics with cryogenic sample stage and sample handling robotics for an automated high-throughput life sciences TEM solution.
The Titan Krios enables researchers to create three-dimensional molecular-level images of biological material in its native hydrated state.
The research centres that will use the microscope are: the National University of Singapore, Tsinghua University (Beijing) and the Institute of Biophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing).
Wanzhong He, a professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), said: 'With cryo-electron tomography, we can look at intact cellular systems arrested at an instant in time.
'Not only can we see macromolecular structures down to a resolution of a couple of nanometers, we see them in the context of the neighbouring structures and molecular entities with which they naturally interact.
'Because we are capturing snapshots of individual molecular instances, we will be able to analyse the dynamic behaviour of flexible proteins and follow the conformational changes that are at the heart of many biological structure-function relationships.' Professor He also intends to use ET to trace endocytic trafficking events and to dissect the molecular mechanisms of genetic and infectious diseases.
The Titan Krios will be located in the NUS Cryo-EM facility, which will be completed by summer 2009.
Dr Yigong Shi, vice-director of the Institute of Biomedicine at Tsinghua University, will use the Titan Krios to research the molecular mechanisms of tumorogenesis.
At the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Professor Tao Xu's research will focus on elucidating the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying blood glucose regulation.
The Titan Tem platform delivers the mechanical, electronic and thermal stability required for life science and materials science applications.
The Titan Krios is optimised for cryo-transmission electron microscopy, dual-axis cryo-electron tomography and automated single particle analysis.
