Adding a rare new capability, the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics now houses a leading-edge 300 kV cryo-electron microscope. The award-winning Krios G4 provides unrivaled atomic resolution for single-particle and tomographic cryo-electron microscopy.

The carefully renovated space for the instrument in the Biochemistry and Biophysics Building was built to minimize vibrations and other interferences. A continuous air exchange system allows for temperature control with minimum change in airflow. The room is also humidity-controlled to reduce ice contamination on the grids during handling.

In September 2022, technical experts from Thermo-Fisher finished installing the instrument in collaboration with Gaya Yadav, Ph.D., technical director of the cryo-EM resource; Terry Lovingshimer, Operations Manager for Biochemistry and Biophysics; and Junjie Zhang, Ph.D., Associate Professor and faculty director for the resource.

The LBSB-cryoEM has already generated >30 high-resolution structures after its inauguration in December 2022 with the 1.58A resolution for the ApoF and 1.90Angstrom for a membrane protein and 2.18A for a <80kDa membrane protein in detergent.

Notable equipment

• Krios G4 Cryo-TEM, equipped with autoloader.
• Gatan K3 direct electron detector Camera with BioContinuum post-column Imaging filter.
• Thermo Fisher Scientific phase plate.
• Ceta-D camera for low-dose diffraction data collection.
• Vitrobot Mark IV for sample vitrification.
• EasiGlow dual system (TedPella) for glow discharging the grids.
• GPU-accelerated workstation to process cryo-EM data.

The laboratory is available to support research within the Texas A&M University System and beyond (academic external and non-academic users).