‘It opens up a whole new universe’: Revolutionary microscopy technique sees individual atoms for first time

‘It opens up a whole new universe’: Revolutionary microscopy technique sees individual atoms for first time

‘It opens up a whole new universe’

In June, a game-changing technique for imaging molecules produced its sharpest pictures yet — and, for the first time, discerned individual atoms in a protein. The cryo-electron microscopy breakthrough, reported by two laboratories, will ultimately help researchers to understand how proteins work in health and disease, and will lead to better drugs with fewer side effects. “It’s really a milestone, that’s for sure. There’s really nothing to break anymore. This was the last resolution barrier,” says biochemist and electron microscopist Holger Stark.

Nature | 5 min readReference: bioRxiv preprint 1 & bioRxiv preprint 2