I2BC / Plateforme de cryo-microscopie électronique (Cryo-EM)

Cryo-EM has two microscopes: 120 kV equipped with a direct detection camera (K2 Gatan) and a cooled object holder (Gatan 626), and the state-of-art 200kV, Glacios microscope, equipped with Falcon 4i camera.The platform's equipment allows the observation of biological objects (proteins, multi-protein complexes, viruses, liposomes, multi-molecular assemblies, etc.) after negative staining, or by cryo-electron microscopy in their natural aqueous environment. Negative staining is used to check the quality and homogeneity of the samples, but also to get an idea of the shape of the objects and possibly to determine the stoichiometry of certain assemblies.
The platform also allows the observation of in situ complexes (proteins on the surface of purified organelles or enveloped viruses, membrane proteins reconstituted in liposomes, ...) by cryo-electron tomography. This platform is part of the I2BC's Structural Biology platforms, which include: i) the Crystallization, NMR, CryoEM, Macromolecular Interaction Measurements platforms, and ii) the technical platforms for Soluble or Membrane Protein Expression in Yeast, Protein Expression in Insect Cells and Structural Bioinformatics.

• Mrs Ana Andreea ARTENI