Posts Tagged: "Sriram Subramaniam"

Freezing Out Cancer? How scientists are using cryo-electron microscopy to make advances in cancer research

Scientists led by Sriram Subramaniam, PhD, of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Center for Cancer Research, are using cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) to analyze and image molecules, so they can draw conclusions about the way the structure works. At cryogenic temperatures in a range of -180°C to -269°C, they have been able to observe the specimens in their native environment. Simply put, the native state of the samples is preserved in a very thin, liquid, frozen-hydrated film which is rapidly plunged into a liquid ethane bath. Basically, the film is flash frozen with liquid nitrogen. Then, a two dimensional image is captured using electrons. Subsequently, the researchers create thousands of these 2-D images of the molecules in numerous orientations and average them together. What results is a three-dimensional image of the biological object. This technology was named “Method of the Year” for 2015 by Nature Methods.