title: Unravelling biological macromolecules with cryo-electron microscopy.
abstract: Knowledge of the three-dimensional structures of proteins and other biological macromolecules often aids understanding of how they perform complicated tasks in the cell. Because many such tasks involve the cleavage or formation of chemical bonds, structural characterization at the atomic level is most useful. Developments in the electron microscopy of frozen hydrated samples (cryo-electron microscopy) are providing unprecedented opportunities for the structural characterization of biological macromolecules. This is resulting in a wave of information about processes in the cell that were impossible to characterize with existing techniques in structural biology.
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Fernandez-Leiro
authors.affiliation: MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB2 0QH, UK.
authors.forename: Sjors H W
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Scheres
mesh_terms: D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000737:chemistry / Q000648:ultrastructure; D008958:Models, Molecular; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000648:ultrastructure*
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; D046912:Multiprotein Complexes