Electron Cryo-Tomography and Correlated Light and Electron Microscopy (CLEM) Workshop

Tuesday, December 11, 4:15 pm

Workshop Description:
 Integrating the complexity of cellular organization from the atomic to the organelle scale is a grand challenge at the intersection of cell biology, biophysics and structural biology. There is thus a growing need to study cellular assemblies of proteins, lipids and nucleic acids in their native environment. In addition, it is important to understand how the distribution of cellular components changes over time and how dynamic changes in protein complexes mediate functions.

A requirement for such comprehensive cellular models is integration of data from different scales of resolution. Electron cryo-tomography (cryo-ET) has emerged as a key technology towards this goal, since it resolves cellular complexes in situ, in a near-native state, in three dimensions and at the nanometer regime. Correlated light and electron microscopy is a powerful approach to overcome major challenges in cryo-ET: The localization of transient and elusive structures and the identification of defined stages during a cellular process. At the other end of the scale, combining density maps from cryo-ET with high-resolution structures attains an atomic view of cellular mechanisms.

In this workshop we present the forefront of cryo-ET, including sample preparation by cryo-focused ion beam milling, correlation with fluorescence microscopy and image processing approaches.

Organizers and Speakers:
Wanda Kukulski, Co-Organizer and Speaker, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, UK
Martin Pilhofer, Co-Organizer and Speaker, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Juha Huiskonen, Speaker, Oxford Particle Imaging Centre, University of Oxford, UK
Elizabeth Wright, Speaker, Morgridge Institute for Research and University of Wisconsin-Madison