Software for Automated Generation of Density Maps

The  National Cancer Institute (NCI) is seeking parties interested in licensing software for the automated determination of macromolecular structures using cryo-electron microscopy.

The technology available is computer software for the automated generation of density maps of macromolecular structures from a series of 2D digital micrographs of frozen hydrated specimens collected using an electron microscope equipped with an ultra-cooled computerized stage.  A series of images of biological specimens collected at different tilt angles relative to the electron beam are aligned to compensate for mechanical errors of the stage and combined to obtain 3D images (tomograms). Sub-volumes containing a single macromolecular complex can be extracted from the 3D image of a protein solution, or from a suspension of viruses or cells. The individual sub-volumes of identical structures are aligned and averaged together to generate a density map of the macromolecular complex of interest.
 

Competitive Advantages:

• Noise processing
• Algorithmic averaging

Commercial Applications:

• Macromolecular imaging
• Mapping of molecular interactions
• Determination of molecular structure and reactivity