Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

The democratization of cryo-EM

Nature Methods volume 13, pages 607–608 (2016)Cite this article

Subjects

To the Editor:

The cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) community is in the throes of a 'resolution revolution'1. Years of technical development have led to hardware and software that can provide refined atomic structures with resolutions adequate for obtaining novel biological insights and for structure-based drug design2,3. However, these advances come at the cost of a multi-million-dollar investment that is required to establish a cutting-edge microscope, a detector and computational support. We believe that there is now the opportunity, and need, to provide democratic access to maximize the impact of cryo-EM on basic and applied science.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Kühlbrandt, W. Science 343, 1443–1444 (2014).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Banerjee, S. et al. Science 351, 871–875 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Merk, A. et al. Cell 165, 1698–1707 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Saibil, H.R., Grunewald, K. & Stuart, D.I. Acta Crystallogr. D Biol. Crystallogr. 71, 127–135 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Boardman, C. & Gray, D. J. Technol. Transf. 35, 445–459 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Henderson, R. et al. Structure 20, 205–214 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work is funded by the UK Medical Research Council (D.I.S.); the Wellcome Trust (D.I.S.); the National Cancer Institute, NIH (S.S.); the Spanish MINECO/FEDER (BFU2015-64541-R to N.G.A.A.); the Basque Department of Education, Language Policy and Culture (N.G.A.A.); and the European Commission (MSCA-H2020 to N.G.A.A.).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Structural Biology, Instruct, the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    David I Stuart

  2. Diamond Light Source Ltd., Diamond House, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot, UK

    David I Stuart

  3. Laboratory of Cell Biology, Center for Cancer Research, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

    Sriram Subramaniam

  4. Structural Biology Unit, CICbioGUNE, CIBERehd, Derio, Spain

    Nicola G A Abrescia

  5. IKERBASQUE, Basque Foundation for Science, Bilbao, Spain

    Nicola G A Abrescia

Authors
  1. David I Stuart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sriram Subramaniam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Nicola G A Abrescia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to David I Stuart, Sriram Subramaniam or Nicola G A Abrescia.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Stuart, D., Subramaniam, S. & Abrescia, N. The democratization of cryo-EM. Nat Methods 13, 607–608 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3946

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nmeth.3946

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing