Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology graduate university completes installation of new Talos Arctica Cryo-TEM from FEI

Highly-automated system is designed to encourage cross over use by researchers with expertise in adjacent technologies, such as X-ray crystallography, seeking better understanding of critical biological structures down to the molecular level

FEI has completed the installation of a new Talos Arctica™ cryo-transmission electron microscope (TEM) at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan. Scientists will use the new Talos Arctica for high-resolution, three-dimensional (3D) analysis of biological molecules or macro-molecular complexes in their native, fully-hydrated state.

Matthias Wolf, assistant professor of the Molecular Cryo-Electron Microscopy Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University in Japan, states, “FEI fulfilled and exceeded all our expectations with Talos Arctica – the tool was installed in record time and produced the first sub-two-ångström images five days after delivery. It truly represents yet another incremental leap in technological progress and integration. Due to its nearly identical intuitive graphical interface to our currently-installed Titan Krios™ TEM, users were able to transition effortlessly from the Titan Krios to the Arctica. The phase plate, in combination with the Falcon direct electron detector installed on the Arctica, performs incredibly and will certainly enable novel frontiers of research.”

“The Talos Arctica is FEI’s workhorse system for single particle analysis (SPA) and cryo-tomography,” states Peter Fruhstorfer, FEI’s vice president and general manager of Life Sciences. “Its improved ease-of-use and extensive automation lower the threshold of adoption, for example, scientists with a background in x-ray crystallography can now take advantage of the Talos Arctica’s high-resolution imaging capabilities. The research community is quite excited about the combination of atomic-scale crystallographic structural determination and molecular-scale visualization using electron microscopy, which has recently yielded a number of important discoveries in the burgeoning field of integrated structural biology.”

The Talos Arctica cryo-TEM incorporates sophisticated automation and electron optical technologies, pioneered on FEI’s flagship Titan Krios™ TEM, but provides a lower cost of entry for structural biologists who want to increase analytical productivity and reduce time-to-answer.

Wolf adds:

We selected the Talos Arctica due to its combination of affordability, high sample throughput, and automated workflows. The Talos system’s streamlined user interface and extensive automation of routine operations and set up procedures makes it a practical tool for researchers that are not trained specifically in electron microscopy

The Talos Arctica is a powerful, stable, and highly automated cryo-TEM that is optimized for high-resolution 3D imaging of proteins and macromolecular assemblies and high-resolution cellular tomography. Its high throughput, stability and ease-of-use enable scientists to quickly obtain better insight and understanding of macromolecular structures, cellular components, cells and tissues in three dimensions. Its stability and revolutionary cryo capabilities support a full range of applications including: SPA, electron crystallography and cryo-electron tomography. For more information, please go to http://www.fei.com/talos-arctica/.

Source: FEI