Cryo-ET is an imaging technique that allows acquiring high-resolution 3D structures such as intracellular organelles and protein complexes in their near-native cellular environment. This technique has shown great potential to improve our understanding of complex biological processes. 

While being extremely powerful, this technique is also exceedingly complicated. The sample preparation method is currently a major bottleneck that slows down the whole workflow. During the webinar we are going to look at the main obstacles of the cryo-ET workflow and discuss how this process could be improved.

Our application specialist Marit Smeets will give an overview of all the steps that are involved in the current sample preparation method, specifically focusing on the cryo fluorescence light microscopy (cryo-FLM). Cryo-FLM plays an important role in the cryo-ET workflow as it allows identification of the region of interest (ROI) for further Focused Ion Beam (FIB) milling. It does however introduce another complicated transfer step making the workflow even more error prone.