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Publication Abstract from PubMed

Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) visualizes the atomic structure of macromolecules that are embedded in vitrified thin ice at their close-to-native state. However, the homogeneity of ice thickness, a key factor to ensure high image quality, is poorly controlled during specimen preparation and has become one of the main challenges for high-resolution cryo-EM. Here we found that the uniformity of thin ice relies on the surface flatness of the supporting film, and developed a method to use ultraflat graphene (UFG) as the support for cryo-EM specimen preparation to achieve better control of vitreous ice thickness. We show that the uniform thin ice on UFG improves the image quality of vitrified specimens. Using such a method we successfully determined the three-dimensional structures of hemoglobin (64 kDa), alpha-fetoprotein (67 kDa) with no symmetry, and streptavidin (52 kDa) at a resolution of 3.5 A, 2.6 A and 2.2 A, respectively. Furthermore, our results demonstrate the potential of UFG for the fields of cryo-electron tomography and structure-based drug discovery.

Uniform thin ice on ultraflat graphene for high-resolution cryo-EM.,Zheng L, Liu N, Gao X, Zhu W, Liu K, Wu C, Yan R, Zhang J, Gao X, Yao Y, Deng B, Xu J, Lu Y, Liu Z, Li M, Wei X, Wang HW, Peng H Nat Methods. 2023 Jan;20(1):123-130. doi: 10.1038/s41592-022-01693-y. Epub 2022 , Dec 15. PMID:36522503^[1]

From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.