The METi platform now houses a fully automated cryo-electron microscope (Talos Arctica, ThermoFisher Scientific) equipped with a direct electron detection camera coupled to an energy loss filter (K2 summit BioQuantum, Gatan). This transmission electron microscope, dedicated to high-resolution/high-throughput observation of biological and organic samples frozen in amorphous ice, is now fully operational.
One of the major applications of cryo-electron microscopy is the determination of the 3D structure of macromolecules at a quasi-atomic scale. This approach, which was recently used to access the structure of coronaviruses, opens up important perspectives in structural biology, pharmacology, virology, enzymology, etc. During the qualification tests, a first series of image acquisition led to the determination of the structure of apoferritin, a test enzyme well known to structural biologists, with a resolution of 2.35 Å in a few days.
This Talos Arctica will also make it possible to study the three-dimensional structure of cells or other nano-objects, biological or not, by cryo-electron tomography. With this new device, Toulouse joins the small club of French sites equipped with high-throughput / high-resolution cryo-microscopes. Installed in the new 4R4 building of the Centre for Integrative Biology, the Toulouse Talos Arctica is now open to the whole scientific community.
Contact and booking
