Hi
I'm Grant Jensen. Welcome to my lab! I'm a
professor of biology
at the California Institute of
Technology and an investigator
of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
One of the most important things we do in
my lab is cryo electron microscopy
3d electron microscopy
cryo- EM allows biological samples such
as macromolecular complexes
viruses or even whole cells to be imaged
in near-native frozen hydrated state
sometimes near atomic resolution imaging
macromolecular complexes
Cryo-EM often leads immediately to
dramatic new insights about their
structural
function especially when they're imaged
in their cellular context
as a result sometimes a few good images
is all that's needed to discern between
different models for how things
actually work so like the famous
late caltech physics professor Richard
Feynman once said
it's very easy to answer many in these
fundamental biological questions
you just look at that thing. In a growing
number of cases
cryo-EM is the best way to book at
cellular and molecular biology
unfortunately there isn't yet a good
place to find all the introductory
information needed to get started in
this field most of us learned it through
personal interaction and
mentors in fact for the past twelve
years
I just been teaching new members of my lab one on one
in small group is needed but now I've
organized
most the material into a logical
sequence and recorded careful
explanations that
for anyone who wants to learn there are
two things I'd like to emphasize
first this class focuses on concepts
rather than mathematical details I
explain how
and why with lots of pictures and drawings.
Second,
I start from the beginning so anybody
interested in cell biology
should be able to follow. It is for
beginners
though I hope experts will also find new
clarity
new perspectives new ideas for their own
teaching
the goal is that by the end of the
course you will have learned the basic
anatomy of
electron microscopes, the basic concepts
underlying image formation, the kinds of
sample preparation methods that have
been developed so far
and the foundational concepts and
workflows
involved in electron tomography, single
particle analysis,
and electron crystallography. I've enjoyed
pulling together my knowledge on this
topic to share with you
and I hope you find it valuable in your
research and education.
 
