Electron Microscopy

Our facility

Scientist using electron microscopy equipment

The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory is the Electron Microscopy (EM) facility within the Faculty of Biological Sciences. We have a range of state-of-the-art equipment for transmission electron microscopy of biological specimens, from small molecules and macromolecular complexes to tissues, and related material.

Our services are available to researchers from across the University, as well as external users from academia and industry.

We specialise in cryo-electron microscopy, generating high-resolution data to produce structures of a broad range of macromolecular complexes including membrane proteins, ribosomes and viruses.

Our workflows also enable the collection of cryo-EM tilt-series for tomographic reconstruction of tissues and large macromolecular assemblies.

Our EM facilities are enabling world-leading research, such as new and exciting research papers.

Read through some examples below:

Cell: Shapeshifting fibres: capturing the transformation of a rogue protein

Nucleic Acids Research: How a tumour suppressor repairs DNA