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How Cryo-EM Reveals Protein Structures in Atomic Detail
冷冻电镜如何看清蛋白质
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Cryo-electron microscopy, or cryo-EM, freezes protein samples extremely fast to preserve their natural shape.
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When flash-frozen in liquid ethane, proteins form a thin layer of vitreous ice instead of damaging crystals.
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Electron beams pass through this ice layer and scatter off atoms inside the protein molecules.
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Computers then collect thousands of 2D projection images from different angles of the same protein.
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Using advanced algorithms, these images are aligned and reconstructed into a high-resolution 3D model.
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Unlike X-ray crystallography, cryo-EM works even for large, flexible, or membrane-bound proteins.
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This technique helped scientists visualize the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 within months of the pandemic’s start.
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Researchers now use cryo-EM to design better drugs by seeing exactly where molecules bind to targets.
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The method earned its developers the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for revolutionizing structural biology.
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Because it avoids harsh chemical treatments, cryo-EM gives us truer pictures of how proteins function in real cells.