Protein nanocrystallography
Knowledge of the atomic structures of molecules has been one of the major driving forces in life sciences. Until now, X-ray crystallography has been the dominant method in this field. Prof. Jan Pieter Abrahams (Universiteit Leiden) and prof. Henny Zandbergen (TU Delft) recently demonstrated that useful electron diffraction data can be obtained from nano-sized protein crystals where X-rays fail. The NeCEN microscopes have exactly those specs that are needed to obtain more and better data.
Figure: electron diffraction pattern of a 3D protein nano-crystal (200 nm3) diffracting out to 2.5 Å resolution.
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