Speaker: Michael Elbaum, Ph.D, Weizmann Institute of Science
Title: Many dimensions of cryo-electron microscopy by STEM
Abstract: Cryo-EM has revolutionized structural biology of biological macromolecules and viruses. Along with this success, as well as the success of structural prediction, attention shifts to in situ studies within the relevant cell or tissue context. Tomography enters naturally for reconstruction of this context in three dimensions. Accordingly, a shift from the conventional wide-field TEM modality to a scanning TEM, or STEM mode, accommodates significantly larger volumes. STEM is actually an electron diffraction technique with great flexibility and versatility. The talk will describe first an application of STEM and electron diffraction to the study of hemozoin crystallization in Plasmodium falciparum, which highlights the differences between the biogenic and synthetic crystals, followed by technical developments for phase imaging at enhanced resolution.