Magnetic Isolation and Concentration Cryo-Electron Microscopy

Magnetic Isolation and Concentration Cryo-Electron Microscopy  Latest News

Researchers in the U.S. have created Magnetic Isolation and Concentration cryo-electron microscopy (MagIC) which can study samples 100x more dilute than before.

About Magnetic Isolation and Concentration Cryo-Electron Microscopy

• It helps researchers to study samples 100 times more dilute than before.
• It is a technique enabling direct structural analysis of targets captured on magnetic beads, thereby reducing the targets’ concentration requirement to <0.0005 mg/mL.

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Working of Magnetic Isolation and Concentration Cryo-Electron Microscopy 

• It uses magnetic beads (50-nm size beads) to hold molecules in place.
• This greatly reduces the amount of protein needed in the initial sample.
• A refined analysis method called Duplicated Selection To Exclude Rubbish (DuSTER) was designed in parallel to help capture the structure of smaller molecules.
• MagIC-cryo-EM and DuSTER will allow scientists to use cryo-EM to examine the structure of proteins which are smaller, challenging to isolate or present in minute quantities inside cells.
• Application: The knowledge gained from these findings could help us better understand a wide range of biological processes.

Key Facts about Cryo-Electron Microscopy  (Cryo-EM)

• It is a technique that allows researchers to directly visualize proteins.
• The approach first requires flash-freezing a sample at extremely low temperatures, and then sending a beam of electrons through the specimen from several angles.
• The resulting series of two-dimensional images are analysed using advanced algorithms to construct a final three-dimensional protein model.
• Limitations: Despite its power, cryo-EM also has limitations, including requiring very large quantities of protein in the initial sample. The algorithms currently available for Cryo-EM analyses also struggle to determine the structure of smaller molecules.

Source: TH