FEI Company has announced that the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has installed a Titan Krios transmission electron microscope (TEM).
In an effort to understand the causes of disease, UCLA's Dr Hong Zhou, director of the Electron Imaging Center for Nanomachines (EICN), part of the California Nanosystems Institute, has initiated high-resolution molecular imaging studies using the Titan Krios TEM.
The Titan Krios is specifically designed for 3D molecular imaging applications where samples are imaged at cryogenic temperatures, which preserves the biological samples in their native hydrated state.
The microscope's ability to generate images used in the creation of 3D molecular structures with resolutions as small as a few tenths of a nanometre allows scientists to investigate the structure and function of biological nanomachines at the molecular scale.
Recent advances have made cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) an important imaging tool for major applications in both medicine and nanobiological research.
Researchers can use cryo-EM to visualise a broad range of assemblies or nanometre-scale structures at near-atomic resolution and in three dimensions.
This imaging method covers a scale range from tens of micrometres to Angstroms and provides valuable structural information for numerous scientific disciplines including structural biology, cell biology, medical and pharmaceutical science.
The Titan Krios TEM will be publicly demonstrated at a symposium entitled, 'Advanced Electron Microscopy in NanoMedicine', to be held on 2-3 October 2009 at the EICN.
Featuring in-depth talks by leading structural biologists and poster presentations by both academic and industrial researchers, the symposium will cover a wide range of topics, including: cryo-sample preparation; high-resolution cryo-electron microscopy imaging; and advances in 3D molecular reconstruction techniques, such as electron tomography and single particle analysis.
