Better, Faster, Cheaper: Recent Advances in Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Eugene Y D Chua; Joshua H Mendez; Micah Rapp; Serban L Ilca; Yong Zi Tan; Kashyap Maruthi; Huihui Kuang; Christina M Zimanyi; Anchi Cheng; Edward T Eng; Alex J Noble; Clinton S Potter; Bridget Carragher

doi:10.1146/annurev-biochem-032620-110705

Better, Faster, Cheaper: Recent Advances in Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Annu Rev Biochem. 2022 Jun 21:91:1-32. doi: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-032620-110705. Epub 2022 Mar 23.

Authors

Eugene Y D Chua^{1

2

3}, Joshua H Mendez^{1

2

3}, Micah Rapp^{1

2}, Serban L Ilca^{1

2}, Yong Zi Tan^{4

5}, Kashyap Maruthi^{1

2

6}, Huihui Kuang^{1

2

6}, Christina M Zimanyi^{1

2

3}, Anchi Cheng^{1

2

6}, Edward T Eng^{1

2

3}, Alex J Noble^{1

2

6

7

8}, Clinton S Potter^{1

2

3

6

7

8}, Bridget Carragher^{1

2

3

6

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ New York Structural Biology Center, New York, NY, USA; email: echua@nysbc.org, jmendez@nysbc.org, mrapp@nysbc.org, silca@nysbc.org, kmaruthi@nysbc.org, hkuang@nysbc.org, czimanyi@nysbc.org, acheng@nysbc.org, eeng@nysbc.org, anoble@nysbc.org, cpotter@nysbc.org, bcarr@nysbc.org.
² Simons Electron Microscopy Center, New York, NY, USA.
³ National Center for CryoEM Access and Training, New York, NY, USA.
⁴ Department of Biological Sciences, National University of Singapore, Singapore; email: yztan@nus.edu.sg.
⁵ Disease Intervention Technology Laboratory, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore.
⁶ National Resource for Automated Molecular Microscopy, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ National Center for In-Situ Tomographic Ultramicroscopy, New York, NY, USA.
⁸ Simons Machine Learning Center, New York, NY, USA.

PMID: 35320683
PMCID: PMC10393189
DOI: 10.1146/annurev-biochem-032620-110705

Abstract

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) continues its remarkable growth as a method for visualizing biological objects, which has been driven by advances across the entire pipeline. Developments in both single-particle analysis and in situ tomography have enabled more structures to be imaged and determined to better resolutions, at faster speeds, and with more scientists having improved access. This review highlights recent advances at each stageof the cryo-EM pipeline and provides examples of how these techniques have been used to investigate real-world problems, including antibody development against the SARS-CoV-2 spike during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: SARS-CoV-2; automation; cryo-EM; democratization; in situ tomography; machine learning.

Publication types

Review
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Cryoelectron Microscopy / methods
Humans
Pandemics*
SARS-CoV-2
Single Molecule Imaging

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding