If you know the shape of a protein you can figure out how it works, the traditional way of doing it is to crystallize the protein and then use x-ray diffraction, but many important proteins can't be crystallized such as those in ribosomes and in cell membranes. An alternative method is Cryo–electron microscopy, It involves flash freezing the protein and then taking many electron microscope pictures of it from random angles and stitching all that information together with software to make a 3-D picture, but until now the resolution wasn't good enough to see individual atoms. In the October 21, 2020 issue of Nature there is a report of a Cryo–electron microscope that, thanks to an improved electron beam and improved software, has a resolution of 1.25 * 10^-10 meters, and that's good enough to see an individual hydrogen atom. This should revolutionize the study of proteins structure and their function.
Atomic-resolution protein structure determination by cryo-EM <https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2833-4> John K Clark -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/everything-list/CAJPayv0_F3H5YtbQG89%3DuYGC-Too2znA74sjPv5CX%3DzfajKSaw%40mail.gmail.com.
