Practical Course

Cryo-Electron Microscopy (cryoEM) has been established as a mature technique to determine the three-dimensional structure of biological macromolecules. It is currently reaching atomic resolution and it is capable of unveiling the structure of conformationally heterogeneous samples, as well as macromolecular complexes. It is complementary to other structural techniques like X-ray crystallography and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and at the moment it is the most rapidly growing technique in atomic structure depositions at public databases like PDB.

The purpose of SPACET 2023 is to provide an intensive hands-on training for how to perform single particle analysis (SPA) and cryo-electron tomography (CET) data collection and analysis. The workshop is aimed at researchers of all levels wanting to adopt electron microscopy as one of the tools at their disposal for elucidating biological structures.

The workshop will help its participants to get familiarized with the basic SPA and CET workflow. We will start with the cell cultures or isolated macromolecules and we aim to end up with the calculated electron density map which will be ready for the model generation or further analysis. We will perform and train all the techniques which are necessary for the sample vitrification, vitrified sample handling, data acquisition and reconstruction.

SPACET 2023 is targeted at those users and labs who intend or plan to use cryoEM methods and it is not necessary to have any previous experience with data collection or reconstruction. Nevertheless, we will do our best to accommodate experienced participants with their own protein samples. In cooperation with Cryo-electron microscopy and tomography core facility (CEMCOF), we specifically aim for establishing a complete feasible and efficient cryoEM workflow leading from sample to the final model.

May 15 - May 19, 2023

BIOCEV, Vestec

The course is organized by the Imaging Methods Core Facility and Centre of Molecular Structure.