Cryo-EM scaffold supports imaging of small proteins previously tricky to study

Cryo-electron microscopy can now determine the atomic structure of small and medium-sized proteins thanks to molecular scaffolds that hold the proteins in place. The work could assist the discovery and design of promising drugs by elucidating protein structures that were previously inaccessible by cryo-EM.

Cryo-EM scooped the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2017 as a revolutionary technology that images the atomic structure of biological molecules in high resolution. It works by firing a beam of electrons through a frozen sample to produce thousands of photographs of molecule orientations. A computer then processes these images to produce a composite, high-resolution 3D image of a desired molecule.