- A state-of-the-art transmission electron microscope of a multi-million euro cost , specially designed for cryo-electron microscopy in biology
- Funded under the Programme d'investissement d'avenir 3 (PIA3) and the Equipex+ program managed by the ANR (French National Research Agency)
- Inaugurated on Friday November 8, 2024 at the European Synchrotron in Grenoble (ESRF), in the presence of Gabriele FIONI, Rector Delegate for Higher Education, Research and Innovation for the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes academic region.
This new microscope, based in the Grenoble area, will play a key role in the development of collaborative research in structural biology, particularly for drug design and biomedical research. It will also contribute to a better understanding of biomolecule dynamics and, thanks to its location at ESRF, will complement other structural biology techniques, covering analyses from the atomic to the cellular scale.
In addition to boosting national skills in this strategic field, this equipment, along with its two “twins”, should reposition France at the forefront of world research in structural biology, while attracting collaborations with internationally renowned research centers.
Thanks to its exceptional performance, the Titan Krios G4, available to the French and European scientific community, represents a major technological advance for structural biology research. It will enable the structures of biological macromolecular complexes to be resolved at the atomic scale, opening up new prospects for the development of medical therapies and the understanding of fundamental biological mechanisms.
« Cryo-electron microscopy has transformed the way researchers approach neurodegenerative diseases, pathogens and cancers, providing them with unprecedented insight into protein structures and a better understanding of disease development,” says Mike Shafer, President of Biopharma Services at Thermo Fisher Scientific, which developed the Titan Krios G4.
