Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Invests in Duke Team's Work to Improve Cryo-EM Images

Duke's expertise in Cryo-EM microscopy has attracted a nearly $700,000 grant from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) that will support an effort to make this Nobel-prize winning technology do even more. Cryo-EM is a powerful way to visualize the shapes and configurations of individual proteins, said Alberto Bartesaghi, an associate professor of computer science, biochemistry, and electrical and computer engineering, who spearheads the new effort. After taking thousands of pictures of purified protein, the system uses software to assemble a view of the protein's shape. Duke scientists however have begun working with a 3-D approach called tomography, in which the protein sample is rotated. "It's like a CT scan," Bartesaghi said.