FEI has announced that the atomic resolution of viruses in solution has been achieved for the first time ever recorded using a Titan Krios transmission electron microscope (TEM).
It was achieved by Dr Hong Zhou of the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California Nanosystems Institute (CNSI).
The paper was published as a cover feature in Cell on 30 April 2010: 'A cryo-em structure of a non-enveloped virus reveals a priming mechanism for cell entry'.
Dr Leonard H Rome, senior associate dean for research of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine and associate director of the California Nanosystems Institute, said: 'The ability to understand the structure of viruses at an atomic level will open avenues for manipulating them for use in drug delivery and propel numerous innovations in treatments of diseases.' Dr Wah Chiu, professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at Baylor College of Medicine, said: 'Dr Zhou's work shows sensational structural results using single-particle cryo-electron microscopy to resolve detailed protein structure in a large virus.' Dominique Hubert, FEI's vice president and general manager for the Life Sciences Division, said: 'It demonstrates that the FEI Vitrobot and Titan Krios TEM can be used as a workflow solution to uniquely identify atomic structures within a cell in its native hydrated state and to better understand their function.' The Titan Krios is a high-resolution, 3D imaging solution that is specifically designed to image biological structures down to the molecular, and now atomic, level in structural biology applications.
Its integrated cryogenic sample-handling robotics offers automation and the solution permits a full range of high-resolution and 3D techniques, including: cryo-electron microscopy; single-particle analysis; and dual-axis tomography of frozen, hydrated samples, such as viruses and molecular machines.
The Vitrobot is a specimen-preparation device used for plunge-freezing samples when their true colloidal structure needs to be viewed.
