Micro-Crystal Electron Diffraction

Micro-Crystal Electron Diffraction

In the field of structural biology, Micro-crystal Electron Diffraction (MicroED) and Single Particle Analysis (SPA) are two pivotal research methodologies based on Cryo-Electron Microscopy (Cryo-EM). SPA is particularly adept at resolving the 3D structures of soluble proteins, membrane proteins, and large protein complexes in conditions that are close to their natural, fully hydrated state. The difference is, MicroED is capable of rapidly determining the crystal structures with high resolution of organic small molecules and biomacromolecules, such as proteins. The complementary advantages of these two technologies significantly advance research in structural biology.

 

MicroED represents an advanced technology for the 3D reconstruction of organic small molecules and biomacromolecules, such as proteins, utilizing electron diffraction data from Cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy (Cryo-TEM). As a cutting-edge methodology, MicroED uses electrons as the incident beam to acquire microcrystal electron diffraction data from Cryo-TEM. Similar to diffraction methods like X-ray crystallography, MicroED requires the crystallized sample. Although the crystallization process is largely analogous to that in X-ray crystallography, the requisite crystal size for MicroED is much smaller, in the order of hundreds of nanometers.

 

Chi, Nguyen., et al. CURR OPIN STRUC BIOL. 2020.

Figure 1. MicroED workflow

Why Choose CryoEM-Solutions

1.Easy sample preparation

Only a minimal amount of simple powder samples and needle-pierced crystallites are required, which greatly expands the application range of electron microscopy technology.

 

2.High-Throughput process

The sample preparation process is simple, fast and high-throughput. The electron microscope operation time is short, with data collection for a single sample taking less than 30 minutes.

 

3.Extremely high-Resolution data

Crystals well below 200 nm can be easily analyzed. With a limiting resolution of less than 1 Å, molecular structures can be obtained at atomic resolution, and even conformational analysis can be performed for partial groups.

 

The Applications of MicroED

This technique is particularly useful for protein crystallites and pharmaceutical small molecules that are not suitable for X-ray crystal diffraction.