title: Advances in the field of single-particle cryo-electron microscopy over the last decade.
abstract: In single-particle cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), molecules suspended in a thin aqueous layer are rapidly frozen and imaged at cryogenic temperature in the transmission electron microscope. From the random projection views, a three-dimensional image is reconstructed, enabling the structure of the molecule to be obtained. In this article I discuss technological progress over the past decade, which has, in my own field of study, culminated in the determination of ribosome structure at 2.5-Å resolution. I also discuss likely future improvements in methodology.
authors.affiliation: Departments of Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics and of Biological Sciences, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Frank
mesh_terms: D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional; D059629:Signal-To-Noise Ratio