View source for 2026Petrov Laser

== Citation ==

Petrov, P.N., Zhang, J.T., Remis, J., Axelrod, J.J., Cheng, H., Cooper, E.S., Hicklin, I.K., Sandhaus, S., Schnurr, C., Glaeser, R.M. and others 2026. Laser phase plate improves structure determination of small proteins by cryo-EM. Science. (2026), eaeh0665.

== Abstract ==

Phase plates can in principle overcome the poor image contrast in electron cryo–microscopy (cryo-EM) and the resulting limits
on the structural reconstruction of small proteins. However, previous designs have been unstable and compromised the highresolution
signal. They have thus been unable to surpass results achieved by standard cryo-EM. Here, we show that the laser
phase plate (LPP), installed in a custom, modern Titan Krios microscope, enhances the resolution in single-particle reconstruction
of small proteins by improving specimen-motion correction, recovery of information from the early frames, as well as particle
visualization, 3D classification, and alignment. These advances use standard defocus ranges and reconstruction procedures, but
open the door to LPP-tailored protocols offering further improvements by leveraging the LPP demonstrated here.

== Keywords ==

== Links ==

https://www.science.org/doi/full/10.1126/science.aeh0665

== Related software ==

== Related methods ==

== Comments ==