If cryogenic-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is being hailed as a game-changer in long-term medical research and increasing the capabilities of those trying to make breakthroughs in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancers and malaria, then it could also be a game-changer in the more immediate term as a means of better understanding and fighting Covid-19.
As you can read from page 40, cryo-EM is a technique where a sample is cooled to cryogenic temperatures (below -180°C) and unprecedented levels of insight into biomolecular research is enabled. Itt allows scientists to create 3D images of proteins and viruses, and better understand how proteins in the body operate and malfunction.
As a result, it has been actively used in recent months in the fight against Covid-19, to learn more about this particularly virulent virus, map its structure and ultimately be able to better protect against it.
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