Workshop #1: Advanced Topics in Single Particle Cryo-EM & Cryo-ET

Description

	SPONSORED BY:

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is rapidly becoming the method of choice for structure determination of dynamic proteins, large macromolecular assemblies, and multi-protein complexes in vitro and in situ. This powerful technique is now capable of resolving biological specimens to better than 2 Å resolution and has been used to solve high-resolution structures of specimens as small as ~50 kilodaltons and ribosomes within cells. Cryo-EM instrumentation is being installed in many universities across the globe and is also available at large multi-user facilities both in the U.S. and worldwide. However, many practical aspects of cryo-EM are not covered in literature or research talks. We believe that this one-day workshop will cover many of the salient practical issues in single particle and cryo-electron tomography.

We will host a day-long workshop focusing on single particle cryo-EM and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET). In the morning, Dr. Cianfrocco will organize a workshop in single particle cryo-EM that will include lectures and panel discussions with leading experts. Topics will include identifying and dealing with challenging sample preparations, addressing or leveraging sample heterogeneity for structural biology, and validating 3D reconstructions.

Dr. Ho will organize an afternoon-long workshop focused on Cryo-ET. Cellular Cryo-ET is a burgeoning area of the field, with new, often transformational hardware and software advancements occurring on a monthly basis. This year's Advanced Topics in Cryo-ET Workshop is designed to provide scientists currently engaging in Cryo-ET research or scientists with a background in single-particle Cryo-EM who are interested in Cryo-ET with detailed coverage of the current status of the field and highlight major bottlenecks in Cryo-ET, with a particular focus on achieving sub-nanometer resolutions in cellular tomography. Lectures will focus on the major areas that are currently under active development in the field, from specimen preparation and tilt-series collection through to tomographic reconstruction, denoising, subtomogram averaged reconstruction, and segmentation. 

Schedule*

 *Tentative and subject to change.

Instructors

Michael Cianfrocco University of Michigan		Chi-Min Ho Columbia University		Mark Herzik University of California - San Diego
Elizabeth Kellogg Columbia University		Hong Zhou University of California, Los Angeles		Alex de Marco  New York Structural Biology Center
Danielle Grotjahn  The Scripps Research Inst.