• Kochovski, Z.; Chen, G.; Yuan, J.; Lu, Y.: Cryo-Electron microscopy for the study of self-assembled poly(ionic liquid) nanoparticles and protein supramolecular structures. Colloid and Polymer Science 298 (2020), p. 707–717

10.1007/s00396-020-04657-w
Open Access Version

Abstract:
Cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a powerful structure determination technique that is well-suited to the study of protein and polymer self-assembly in solution. In contrast to conventional transmission electron microscopy (TEM) sample preparation, which often times involves drying and staining, the frozen-hydrated sample preparation allows the specimens to be kept and imaged in a state closest to their native one. Here, we give a short overview of the basic principles of Cryo-EM and review our results on applying it to the study of different protein and polymer self-assembled nanostructures. More specifically, we show how we have applied cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) to visualize the internal morphology of self-assembled poly(ionic liquid) nanoparticles and cryo-EM single particle analysis (SPA) to determine the three-dimensional (3D) structures of artificial protein microtubules.