Cryo-electron microscopy of vitrified specimens

1988/05/01 by Jacques Dubochet, Marc Adrian, Jiin-Ju Chang +5 · 2,386 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications #Advanced X-ray Imaging Techniques #Adversary #Biological specimen #Biology #Biophysics #Computer science #Computer security #Cryo-electron microscopy #Electron microscope #Materials science #Microscopy #Optics #Physics #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization

paper · pdf · doi:10.1017/s0033583500004297

published in Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics 21(2), 129-228 (Cambridge University Press)

openalex publication_date 1988/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Cryo-electron microscopy of vitrified specimens was just emerging as a practical method when Richard Henderson proposed that we should teach an EMBO course on the new technique. The request seemed to come too early because at that moment the method looked more like a laboratory game than a useful tool. However, during the months which ellapsed before the start of the course, several of the major difficulties associated with electron microscopy of vitrified specimens found surprisingly elegant solutions or simply became non-existent. The course could therefore take place under favourable circumstances in the summer of 1983. It was repeated the following years and cryo-electron microscopy spread rapidly. Since that time, water, which was once the arch enemy of all electronmicroscopists, became what it always was in nature – an integral part of biological matter and a beautiful substance.

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