The 3DEM Resource Center at Baylor College of Medicine is a national facility for intermediate electron cryomicroscopy and image reconstruction supported by the NIH National Center of Research Resources. Our missions include technology development, collaborative and service research, training, and technology dissemination. A committee of expert scientists provides advice on the activities of the Center.
Our specialty is the development of the technology of electron imaging and the diffraction of biological macromolecular assembly towards atomic resolution. We have active research development underway in the following areas: use of a low temperature cryo-specimen holder, computer controlled data collection, data acquisition in a CCD camera, formation of highly ordered 2D arrays, reduction of specimen charging, and development of interactive software for 3D reconstruction. ICE (Interactive Crystallographic Environment), our integrated graphic software for processing images of 2D arrays, is available free of charge to interested researchers.
We are currently engaged in active collaborative projects involving cytoskeletal protein assembly, viruses, the protein-nucleic acid complex, and membrane channel proteins, which are difficult to study by X-ray crystallography and NMR. We invite applications from interested researchers desiring to use our facility. Applicants should fill out a one-page form and include a C.V. and project and funding summaries. If you have any questions, please contact:
Co-Director: Michael F. Schmid, Ph.D..
Dr. Chiu and Dr. Schmid in front of the 3DEM Resource Center's JEOL 4000 Microscope
Our FAX number is 713-796-9438.
