Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has revolutionized biology and life science as a powerful alternative to X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy for macromolecular structure determination. Advances in algorithms for data and image processing and in hardware for image acquisition have made cryo-EM a routine method to determine the 3D structure of suitable macromolecules with identical or similar conformations at near-atomic resolution.
The implementation of these advanced algorithms with user-friendly software packages has also made the method straightforward in practice. Despite these exciting advances, major challenges still remain, such as higher throughput, mapping continuous deformations, reconstruction of small macromolecules, and in sample preparation. For pleomorphic structures, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) is the method of choice, but it is typically limited to lower resolution compared to cryo-EM, and it remains a daunting challenge to determine macromolecular structures in situ at high resolution. Overcoming these major challenges in cryo-EM and cryo-ET requires significant advances in sample preparation, hardware development and computational algorithms. The goal of this workshop is to bring together leading experts in cryo-EM, biologists, applied mathematicians and physicists to discuss and debate the current challenges and future perspectives of this very exciting cross-disciplinary field.
This workshop will include a poster session; a request for posters will be sent to registered participants in advance of the workshop.
Bridget Carragher
(New York Structural Biology Center (NYSBC))
Wah Chiu
(Stanford University)
Amit Singer
(Princeton University)
Sriram Subramaniam
(University of British Columbia)
Hong Zhou
(University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA))
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