Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Cryo-electron Microscopy

Cryo-electron Microscopy

Conventional electron microscopy (EM) involves dehydration, fixation, and staining of biological samples, which distorts the native state of biological molecules and results in several artifacts. Also, the high-energy electron beam damages the sample and makes it difficult to obtain high-resolution images. These issues can be addressed using cryo-EM, which uses frozen samples and gentler electron beams. The technique was developed by Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank, and Richard Henderson, for...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Spatial Relations between Coccoliths and Their Confining Membrane During Crystal Morphogenesis.

Journal of the American Chemical Society·2026

Same author

Macromolecular Condensates as Tunable Scaffolds for Bio-Inspired Silica Hybrids.

Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English)·2026

Same author

A pharmacological modality to sequester homomeric proteins.

Nature chemical biology·2026

Same author

In-cell structure and variability of pyrenoid Rubisco.

Nature communications·2025

Same author

Inhibition of tau aggregation by the CCT3 and CCT7 apical domains.

Protein science : a publication of the Protein Society·2025

Same author

A cryo-electron microscopy structure of yeast Pex5 in complex with a cargo uncovers a novel binding interface.

Journal of cell science·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 2, 2025

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Cryo-Electron Microscopy by Automated Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Cryo-Electron Microscopy by Automated Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

Published on: December 1, 2023

Maintaining Context in Ice: Cryo-EM/ET Workflow Optimizations.

Nadav Elad¹, Sharon Grayer Wolf¹

¹Department of Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.

Structure (London, England : 1993)

|November 4, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and tomography (cryo-ET) research advances showcase improved sample vitrification for better macromolecular particle quality and novel techniques for analyzing vitrified yeast cells.

More Related Videos

Fast Grid Preparation for Time-Resolved Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Fast Grid Preparation for Time-Resolved Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Published on: November 6, 2021

Strategies for Optimization of Cryogenic Electron Tomography Data Acquisition

Strategies for Optimization of Cryogenic Electron Tomography Data Acquisition

Published on: March 19, 2021

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 2, 2025

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Cryo-Electron Microscopy by Automated Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

Author Spotlight: Enhancing Cryo-Electron Microscopy by Automated Data Collection and Analysis Techniques

Published on: December 1, 2023

Fast Grid Preparation for Time-Resolved Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Fast Grid Preparation for Time-Resolved Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Published on: November 6, 2021

Strategies for Optimization of Cryogenic Electron Tomography Data Acquisition

Strategies for Optimization of Cryogenic Electron Tomography Data Acquisition

Published on: March 19, 2021

Area of Science:

Structural Biology
Biophysics
Microscopy Techniques

Background:

Advancements in cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) are crucial for understanding cellular structures at high resolution.
Optimizing sample preparation is essential for obtaining high-quality data in cryo-EM/ET studies.

Purpose of the Study:

To present recent breakthroughs in cryo-EM/ET research.
To investigate the impact of sample vitrification speed on macromolecular particle quality in cryo-EM grids.
To explore novel methods for analyzing the ultrastructure of vitrified biological samples.

Main Methods:

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET).
Analysis of sample vitrification speed and its effect on particle quality.
Integration of fluorescence microscopy, ion beam milling, and tomography.

Main Results:

Demonstrated correlation between sample vitrification speed and the quality of macromolecular particles in cryo-EM grids.
Successfully combined multiple techniques to reveal unique features within vitrified yeast cells.
Provided insights into optimizing cryo-EM grid preparation for enhanced structural analysis.

Conclusions:

Vitrification speed is a critical parameter for achieving high-quality cryo-EM data.
Multi-modal imaging approaches, such as those combining fluorescence, ion milling, and tomography, offer powerful tools for cellular ultrastructure analysis.
These studies represent significant progress in the application and methodology of cryo-EM/ET.