Electron Microscopy Facility

EMBL Grenoble Electron Microscopy facility provides access to electron cryomicroscopy instrumentation and advanced expertise in sample preparation and image analysis, covering various aspects of single particle analysis as well as cryo-electron tomography experiments.  

The infrastructure is maintained and managed by the facility staff, who also provides training and assistance for anyone wishing to use any of the equipment listed below. EM facility is available for internal users and on a collaborative basis. Please get in touch with us emsupport[at]embl.fr to discuss possible access.

Tecnai G2 Spirit BT (T12)

120 kV accelerating voltage, LaB6 source. 16M CETA camera, used mainly for negative staining samples, but also capable of cryo-EM using side entry cryo-holders.

Glacios

200 kV accelerating voltage, field emission gun (X-FEG) source. This microscope is equipped with an autoloader, Falcon 4i direct electron detector and SelectrisX energy filter. The setup is connected to two different “on-the-fly” processing solutions (CryoSPARC Live and WARP). This microscope is used for cryo-EM sample optimisation and data collection.

Supporting equipment:

Fischione 1070 PLasma Cleaner

Vitrobot Mark IV

PELCO EasiGlow glow discharger

Edwards carbon evaporator

• Razew M, Fraudeau A, Pfleiderer MM, Galej WP.
  Structural basis of the integrator complex assembly and association with transcription factors (2024)
  Molecular Cell (2024) 84, 1-11.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2024.05.009
• Schneider S, Brandina I, Peter D, Lagad S, Fraudeau A, Portell-Montserrat J, Tholen J, Zhao J, Galej WP.
  Structure of the human 20S U5 snRNP.
  Nat Struct Mol Biol (2024) 31 (5), 752-756.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41594-024-01250-5
• Kouba T, Dubankova A, Drncova P, Donati E, Vidossich P, Speranzini V, Pflug A, Huchting J, Meier C, De Vivo M, Cusack S (2023)
  Direct observation of backtracking by influenza A and B polymerases upon consecutive incorporation of the nucleoside analog T1106.
  Cell reports 42(1):111901.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111901
• Dolce LG, Zimmer AA, Tengo L, Weis F, Rubio MAT, Alfonzo JD, Kowalinski E (2022).
  Structural basis for sequence-independent substrate selection by eukaryotic wobble base tRNA deaminase ADAT2/3.
  Nat Commun. 13(1):6737.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34441-z

• Tholen J, Razew M, Weis F, Galej WP (2022).
  Structural basis of the branch site recognition by the human spliceosome. 
  Science 375:50-57.
  https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abm4245
• Adams M, Sharma R, Colby T, Weis F, Matic I, Bhogaraju S. (2021).
  Structural basis for protein glutamylation by the Legionella pseudokinase SidJ.
  Nat Commun. 12(1):6174.
  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26429-y

• Pfleiderer MM, Galej WP (2021).
  Structure of the catalytic core of the Integrator complex. 
  Molecular cell 81 (6), 1246-1259.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molcel.2021.01.005

• Wandzik J, Kouba T, Karuppasamy M, Pflug A, Drncova P, Provaznik J, Azevedo N, Cusack S (2020).
  A Structure-Based Model for the Complete Transcription Cycle of Influenza Polymerase.
  Cell 181(4):877-893.
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.061

EMBL Grenoble also participates, together with the other Partnership for Structural Biology (PSB) institutes, in running the CM01 Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope at the ESRF for external users. For more information regarding access, you can visit the ESRF page or contact Romain Linares.