New cutting-edge microscope ready for use
On November 20 the pioneering FEI Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope was inaugurated by the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences Dean Ulla Wewer, CEO of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Birgitte Nauntofte and Professor Guillermo Montoya at an event in the Maersk Tower. The new microscope has great potential for propelling biostructural research in the future, thus once again emphazising the status of Copenhagen Science City as a world class environment for life science research.
A cutting-edge invention with great potential
The new cryo-electron microscope is considered a revolution within structural biology. The microscope uses electron beams that can be focussed using lenses, making it possible with a great degree of accuracy to see the structures of biomolecules. The new technology allows researchers more precisely to visualise how the cells’ essential machinery operates and how molecules like proteins, protein DNA and multi-protein complexes involved in diseases can be targeted with drugs.
“With the opening of this facility we here at the faculty, in Copenhagen and in Denmark gain access to ground-breaking technology that will enable us to see and understand the very smallest parts of life itself. It is a good example of our efforts to create the best possible facilities and infrastructure for research at the highest level”, Ulla Wewer said.
A world class environment for life science research
The new super-microscope further underscores the status of Copenhagen Science City as a world class environment for life science research. A recent report found that the Greater Copenhagen area houses world class research with international investment potential in fields such as cancer, protein research, metabolitic diseases and bacteriology [Download report here]. The cryo-electron microscope will be part of the University of Copenhagen Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy. This is a fully staffed infrastructure facility which welcomes researchers from academia as well as businesses.
According to plan, the website enabling researchers to apply for permission to use the microscope will be launched within the next few weeks, Professor Guillermo Montoya said on the inaguaration day.
