Cryo-Electron Microscopy
In the last few years there has been a dramatic improvement in the resolution of structures that can be obtained with cryo-electron microscopy. This is exciting because unlike X-ray crystallography it is not necessary to crystalize a macromolecule or complex in order to perform cryo-EM. To take advantage of these new advances UNC has purchased a FEI Talos Arctica G3 with a Gatan K3 detector and established a fully staffed core facility that is available to all laboratories on campus. UNC scientists are using cryo-EM to study membrane proteins, chromatin associated proteins, multi-component enzymes, and proteins from the cytoskeleton.