Latest eBIC news

On 30th October eBIC were pleased to visit the LMB Cambridge, together with colleagues from the Rosalind Franklin Institute. During the day we shared science talks covering a variety of topics, with interesting discussions taking place. eBIC presentations included Stephen Riggs talking about 'Smart data collection and processing at eBIC', and Zhen Hou presenting on 'In situ visualisation of HIV-1 nuclear import and intranuclear trafficking'. Many thanks to Shaoxia Chen and her team for hosting our group, we look forward to your return visit to eBIC.

19th November 2025

The eBIC In Situ Cryo-ET Course came to a successful conclusion this past Friday.

Our on-site delegates received lectures and hands-on practicals on a wide variety of subjects including sample prep, FIB-milling and cryo-ET data collection. We finished off the week with a data processing demo/practical.

More details on the course and link to the programme available here: In Situ cryo-ET course

We would like to thank all those who participated on-line and in person and our terrific instructors and lecturers who made this possible.

LinkedIn: electron Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC)

15th September 2025

We’re excited to share several demo videos now available on the Learning Resources section of our website, covering both sample preparation and data collection workflows.

For sample preparation, you’ll find a video guide on how to plunge freeze samples using a Vitrobot—a technique widely applicable to a range of samples from purified proteins to isolated organelles. We’ve also made a new demonstration specifically for those working with cells adhered to grids. This video walks you through the full workflow: from preparing and seeding the grids, all the way to plunge freezing using the GP2.

On the data collection side, we’ve uploaded in-depth video tutorials on setting up EPU and TOMO sessions at eBIC, recorded during recent training courses. These step-by-step guides are ideal for both new users and users looking for a refresher. You can use them in combination with your user guide to prepare for and support your session.

Visit our Learning Resources page to explore the videos.

15th August 2025

Staff from eBIC and CCP-EM recently participated in a ‘Conceptual Course in Macromolecular Structure Determination’ at King Mongkut's University of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand. David Farmer and Peter Harrison from eBIC gave an overview of electron microscopy and explained the fundamentals of single particle cryoEM and tomography. Attendees were also given a hands on session with one of eBICs 200 keV microscopes. George Coldstream and Nick Whyatt from CCP-EM delivered a structure determination and model building workshop with Doppio and the CCP-EM suite.

         "Thanks so much for joining us in Bangkok last month, we enjoyed having you guys here and are
           grateful for your contribution to the course. It made everybody's experience much more enjoyable."

           Leela Ruckthong & Nukri Sanishvili, organisers of the course held at KMUTT

24th July 2025

We were pleased to host our annual Biological Cryo-Imaging (BCI) User Meeting on 23rd April at the East Midlands Conference Centre (EMCC) in Nottingham. This year’s event welcomed over 300 in-person delegates—our largest turnout to date—with more than 300 additional participants online. As always, the meeting offered an opportunity for attendees to stay informed about the latest developments at eBIC and B24, hear about recent research from our user community, engage with our scientific team, and contribute to discussions shaping the future direction of the eBIC/B24 beamlines.

This year, we hosted five interactive satellite sessions which provided attendees with the opportunity to select from multiple topics. These included correlative microscopy or electron diffraction capabilities offered at eBIC, or how to access expert guidance and state-of-the-art instrumentation for membrane protein structural biology at Harwell campus via MPL. Alternatively, attendees had the chance to share first experiences using HexAuFoil grids or to learn about the capabilities of the new ThermoFisher Krios 5 microscope.

Following the satellite sessions, we hosted a series of insightful keynote and eBIC/B24 user talks. We would like to thank our fantastic keynote speakers: David Sauer (University of Oxford), Valentina Loconte (B24, DLS), and Stephen Muench (The Astbury Centre, University of Leeds). We also would like to thank users of eBIC and B24 who presented their research, including David Waterman (STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory), Martin Rennie (University of Glasgow), and Sonia Rodriguez Fernandez (University of Cambridge). Finally, many thanks to our Diamond User Committee (DUC) representatives, Jamie Blaza (University of York) & Natasha Lukoyanova (Francis Crick Institute), for chairing an engaging and insightful User Meeting Discussion. This session provided valuable feedback from our user community, offering us a deeper understanding of how they utilise eBIC and B24, any barriers to access, as well as their expectations for the future.

To close the event, we enjoyed a Ceilidh hosted by Blackbeard's Tea Party in the evening. It was fantastic catching up with collaborators and the evening reception provided a great networking opportunity.

A big thank you to all our sponsors for making this event possible — CryoCloud, Dectris, Hammerspace, Nanosoft, Nuclera, SPT Labtech, Subangstrom, and ThermoFisher Scientific – your support is greatly appreciated. We would also like to thank Dave Farmer for offering up his brilliant photography skills for the event.

We are delighted to hold the BCI user meeting jointly with CCP-EM and jointly coordinate the logistics for holding such a large meeting that has evolved to be a fantastic forum for the EM community to get up to speed with new developments in the field and also to have the opportunity to exchange experiences.

At this year’s CCP-EM Spring Symposium (24-25^th April), attendees heard the latest developments from CCP-EM, eBIC, and EMDB/EMPIAR, setting the stage for a rich and diverse scientific programme. The talks covered a wide range of exciting topics, including heterogeneity analysis, using laser phase plates, FIB/SEM workflows, new software tools, and advances in time-resolved cryo-EM. The symposium also featured two poster sessions, displaying nearly one hundred posters, and thus representing a wide array of exciting and innovative research being carried out across the cryo-EM community.

This year, we were honoured to present one of the poster prizes in memory of our dear friend and colleague,
Dr Karen Davies, who sadly passed away on 10^th February 2025. Karen was a brilliant scientist, a generous mentor, and a deeply valued member of both eBIC and the wider cryo-EM community. The Karen Davies Memorial Poster Prize was awarded to overall winner Isobel Hirst from Ste Muench’s group (Leeds) for her poster titled ‘Insights into the toxicity of Vip3Aa using STA and single particle cryoEM’.

We were also delighted to see eBIC student Tereza Vecerkova recognised with a poster prize for her work titled ‘Structural studies of a small MFS transporter using single particle cryo-EM’. Tereza is a joint PhD student with eBIC, the Membrane Protein Laboratory, and the University of Oxford. Additional poster prizes were awarded to Davide Torre and James Stacey, whose work also contributed to the high standard and diversity of the symposium's scientific content.

Link to the BCI User Meeting 2025 Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo3ZBhRIiQ912D2koHEjkKDVDGgnNSpIm

Link to the CCP-EM Spring Symposium 2025 Playlist:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLo3ZBhRIiQ93TDeFBe7kRq8fPEAvr9XhS

28th May 2025

March saw the successful completion of the very popular Cryo-EM in Structural Biology workshop hosted by eBIC at Diamond Light Source and the Astbury Biostructure Lab at the University of Leeds. With a total of 24 in-person participants and over 350 registered online attendees, the course offered students and researchers who are new to the field, the foundations in the theory and practise of Cryo-EM. With topics ranging from sample prep to image formation and data processing to model building as well as data processing demonstrations for Single Particle Analysis (SPA) and Tomography, on-site and online participants benefited from the collective knowledge of our expert instructors and a chance to pose questions on related topics and their own research projects. On-site participants also participated in practical sessions for sample vitrification as well as setting data collection for SPA and Tomography.

We want to thank everyone who participated and all our instructors for helping deliver another great course for the structural biology community. We also want to thank the organisers at eBIC and Leeds whose hard work makes these events possible. Finally, a big thanks to the Wellcome Trust and Medical Research Council for funding these training events to train the next generation of structural biologists.

For those who could not attend the lectures and demos, recordings of these can be found here:

Link to recordings - Wellcome-MRC Cryo-EM Course March 3rd-7th 2025

28th March 2025

Throughout this year, Electron Microscopy Scientists at eBIC, Diamond Light Source have been working with the latest cryoEM grids (HexAuFoil) from Quantifoil, to develop optimised workflows for user sessions at eBIC. HexAuFoils are an advanced EM sample support matrix developed by Chris Russo and Katerina Naydenova at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge [1]. HexAuFoil grids provide a number of advantages over traditional support matrices including more uniform ice thickness over the grid and reduced beam induced motion.

To support this and disseminate knowledge to the wider EM community, Dr Peter Harrison from eBIC participated in a Quantifoil hosted webinar explaining the optimal set-up of microscopes and data acquisition software when collecting data using HexAuFoil grids. Moreover, Peter has demonstrated how to plunge freeze HexAuFoil grids, which can be seen on the Quantifoil website [2].

HexAuFoil grids are supported on all user sessions at eBIC and users can also request plasmon imaging to aid in the identification of ice thickness [3].

1. Integrated wafer-scale manufacturing of electron cryo-microscopy specimen supports.
     Naydenova, K. and Russo, CJ. Ultramicroscopy. Vol 232 (113396).

2. Link to the Quantifoil website and YouTube video link: Loading your samples on HexAuFoil grids.

3. Light ‘Em up: Efficient Screening of Gold Foil Grids in Cryo-EM. Hagen, W. Front. Mol.
     Biosci., Vol 9 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmolb.2022.912363

6th December 2024