Advances and applications of microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED)

Abstract

Microcrystal electron diffraction, commonly referred to as MicroED, has become a powerful tool for high-resolution structure determination. The method makes use of cryogenic transmission electron microscopes to collect electron diffraction data from crystals that are several orders of magnitude smaller than those used by other conventional diffraction techniques. MicroED has been used on a variety of samples including soluble proteins, membrane proteins, small organic molecules, and materials. Here we will review the MicroED method and highlight recent advancements to the methodology, as well as describe applications of MicroED within the fields of structural biology and chemical crystallography.

Keywords: Cryo-EM; Cryo-electron microscopy; Crystallography; MicoED; Microcrystal electron diffraction; Protein crystallography; Small molecule crystallography.