May 14, 2019

Rubinstein laboratory publishes preprint on bioRxiv

Diagram from Dr. Rubinstein publication

Diagram from Dr. Rubinstein publicationThe Rubinstein laboratory has published a preprint article entitled 'Shake-it-off: A simple ultrasonic cryo-EM specimen preparation device', describing a new way of preparing specimens for cryoEM. This research was conducted by a team that includes MBP Graduate Student Hui Guo and was led by MBP researcher Dr. John Rubinstein. The collaborative research project also featured representation from The Hospital for Sick Children Research Institute, the U of T Department of Biochemistry, U of T Engineering Science Division and U of T Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering.

Article Summary
Working collaboratively, the team developed a device made from a commercially available ultrasonic humidifier, a Raspberry Pi single board computer, 3D printed and CNC milled components, and a printed circuit board to apply specimen to a nanofabricated cryoEM grid. This new device allows determination of high-resolution protein structures, previously only possible with X-ray crystallography or NMR spectroscopy, from as little as 1 microlitre of solution with better than 90 msec time resolution.

The paper was presented on April 30 at the CCP-EM Symposium and will be published in the proceedings of the conference in the next few months.

View the preprint publication.