BPS2026 – Recent advances in cryo-electron microscopy and tomography

In the recent years, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) single-particle analysis (SPA) has greatly benefited from a multitude of technological advances cumulating in breaking the atomic-resolution barrier for biological macromolecules. Since then, structural insights by cryo-EM have led to driving rational design of new vaccines and therapeutics due to high throughput and high-resolution screening and data collection technologies. Additionally, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has become an indispensable tool for structural cell biology. Our ongoing mission is to further improve the connectivity between the cryo-FIB and cryo-TEM for an even more streamlined tomography workflow that is safer, faster, and cleaner. Data acquisition and processing can be a significant cryo-ET bottleneck. Our integrated solution—the Cryo Tomo Software Suite—combining Thermo Scientific Tomo 5, Tomo Multigrid, and Tomo Live, automates pre-acquisition tasks, enhances productivity with predictive tracking, and enables rapid quality assessment. Robust and optimized on-the-fly motion correction helps to improve data processing efficiency and delivers image quality needed for sub-tomogram averaging. Results are displayed with new quality metrics on a web platform, making the workflow user-friendly and facilitating scientific advancements. In this presentation, we elaborate on the latest Thermo Fisher Scientific innovations for 300 kV cryo-electron microscopy also known as Krios 5 for SPA and cryo-ET to advance more workflow efficiency and performance.