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Cryo-ET for Beginners: From sample to structure - November 2025

Course overview

This virtual beginners’ course is designed for PhD students and early career researchers who are new to cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) and want to incorporate it into their research. The programme combines core lectures with hands-on and live demonstrations sessions guiding participants through the full cryo-ET workflow:

  • Sample preparation and vitrification techniques
  • Cryo-CLEM and CEMOVIS approaches
  • Lamella lift-out preparation with FIB-SEM
  • Tomography data collection on Titan Krios microscopes
  • Introduction to data processing, from segmentation to sub-tomogram averaging in RELION 5

The course offers a complete foundation in cryo-ET, from sample to structure, in an accessible virtual format.

Key Details

  • Registration
  • Dates: 3 - 6 November 2025
  • Location: virtual
  • Registration Deadline: 8th October 2025
  • Course Fee: Free of charge

Eligibility

Applicants must meet the following criteria:

  • Be a PhD student or postdoc new to the field and will be using cryo-EM as part of your work
  • Have access to the necessary cryo-EM instrumentation at your home institution or through a local facility or have established plans to secure such access in the near future.

Programme Schedule

The course begins with introductory lectures on in situ structural biology, vitrification techniques, cryo-ET principles, covering CEMOVIS and cryo-CLEM. Participants will be asked to give a short flash-talks to present themselves and their research. The following days focus on practical demonstrations of lamella preparation lift-out using Hydra pFIB-SEM, alongside hands-on Krios sessions for grid screening and tomography data collection. The final day is dedicated to cryo-ET data processing, with lectures on segmentation and sub-tomogram averaging and a live demonstration in RELION.

Organisers

Astbury Biostructure Laboratory, University of Leeds
eBIC, Diamond Light Source
Midlands Regional Cryo-EM Facility, University of Leicester
Birkbeck college, University of London
Scottish Centre for Macromolecular Imaging, University of Glasgow
For more info contact [email protected]

Logos for Astbury Biostructure, Diamond, University of Leicester, Birkbeck and SCMI.