What are the main applications of cryoelectron microscopy?

Low temperature electron microscope is mainly used to analyze the structure of a single protein molecule. In addition, Duan Shumin, academician of China Academy of Sciences and dean of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, said in an interview with Zhejiang Online reporter that in the future, frozen electron microscopy technology will be widely used to analyze the ultrastructure of cell tissues, which will have a greater impact on unlocking the laws and mechanisms of life activities.

According to Xinmin Evening News, frozen electron microscope technology is an imaging technology that samples are quickly cooled and fixed in glassy ice, and the samples are observed by transmission electron microscope at low temperature. For a long time, the electron microscope can only do some structural analysis with relatively low resolution, and the powerful electron beam will destroy temperature-sensitive samples such as protein and biological slices. The emergence of cryoelectron microscopy technology enables researchers to freeze moving biological macromolecules and image the process mechanism.

So, where will this technology be applied? Xinmin Evening News introduced that the application of cryoelectron microscopy technology will promote the research and development of drugs for major diseases. Targeted drugs will be the mainstream of medical research in the future because of their less side effects and more obvious curative effects. The most important work of targeting research is to analyze how small molecules bind to protein, which requires the use of cryoelectron microscopy.