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Updated: Jul 17, 2026

Cryo-electron Microscopy Specimen Preparation By Means Of a Focused Ion Beam
Published on: July 26, 2014
Focused-ion-beam thinning of frozen-hydrated biological specimens for cryo-electron microscopy
Michael Marko1, Chyongere Hsieh, Richard Schalek
1Resource for Visualization of Biological Complexity, Wadsworth Center, Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York 12201, USA. marko@wadsworth.org
Abstract:
Cryo-electron microscopy can provide high-resolution structural information about cells and organelles in the nearly native, frozen-hydrated state. Applicability, however, is limited by difficulties encountered in preparing suitably thin, vitreously frozen biological specimens. We demonstrate, by cryo-electron tomography of Escherichia coli cells, that a focused ion beam (FIB) can be used to thin whole frozen-hydrated cells in a convenient and essentially artifact-free way.
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