Oklahoma's first dedicated cryo-TEM will be installed at OU-Norman's Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center early in 2024. The world's first commercial 100 kV field-emission TEM, it is specially designed to facilitate single particle analysis of biological molecules. The Tundra has a special loading station to maintain samples prepared by plunge-freezing locked in a film of vitreous ice to preserve the molecules' configurations in solution. The instrument also features automation software that will allow rapid formation of a sample 'atlas', where regions of interest can be selected for further detailed automated imaging.
OU's efforts will be managed jointly between the SRNML and OU's Oklahoma COBRE in Structural Biology, including the Biomolecular Structure Core. OU's Prof. Rakhi Rajan from Chemistry/ Biochemistry and the COBRE was recently featured in Science magazine, describing much needed efforts to broaden access to cryo-TEM methods.
Room renovations and site preparation for the Tundra installation are ongoing. Stay tuned for updates!
