< Research

Improving Cryo-EM for Life Sciences

Cryo-EM is a revolutionary and powerful method. Nevertheless, it has limitations. Samples need to be thin enough (< 200nm) to allow the 200kV to 300kV electron beam to traverse. The recorded cryo-EM images are very noisy, so that smaller particles (< 50kDa) are not detectable. The signal to noise ratio (SNR) of recorded images is low, resulting in low contrast.

We work to improve the contrast in cryo-EM, by evaluating the use of stroboscopic single electron illumination, and by developing diffractive imaging methods, with a focus on Ptychography.