U of A
The University of Alberta has unveiled a new facility featuring a cutting-edge, high-resolution microscope.
The microscope is powerful enough to peer into the deepest structures of life itself, accelerating the development of new drugs to treat infectious diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and even cancer.
The U of A acquired one of only five cryo-electron microscopes in Canada, and the only one in Alberta, capable of revealing the smallest details of cells, proteins and viruses at atomic scale.
“…If we can do that, we can design medical countermeasures like antiviral and cancer drugs to improve the health of Canadians and society in general,” said Matthias Götte, professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and director of Striving for Pandemic Preparedness – The Alberta Research Consortium (SPP-ARC ).
“It will give us a very deep understanding of biological processes involving proteins, RNA and DNA, showing us what they look like and how they interact with each other.”
The $8-million Thermo Fisher Titan Krios G4 high-resolution microscope is the core of the Alberta Cryo-EM Facility, which includes instrumentation for sample preparation and data processing, as well as high-level training, all aimed at preparing for and developing drugs against infectious diseases a media release said.
Cryo-electron microscopy, developed by Jacques Dubochet, Joachim Frank and Richard Henderson, was recognized with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2017 the university said.
From tiny samples frozen to -180 C, the microscope can produce detailed images of complex molecular structures measured in angstroms, or one ten-billionth of a metre.
The captured data are processed within hours, compared with the months or years needed for previous technologies.
The $20-million facility is funded by the Government of Alberta through SPP-ARC will likely be in high demand by researchers across the country and even internationally according to the university.
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