Third Chinese Workshop for Cryo-electron Microscopy of Structural Biology was held from July 31 - Aug 5 at Tsinghua University and Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

The workshop aimed to promote the application of 3D EM in analyzing the structure of complex biomolecules and help structural biology researchers who do not employ cryo-electron microscopy, especially helping those in protein crystallography and Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) acquire advanced technologies.

80 researchers from Chinese mainland, Taiwan and Hong Kong's institutes were chosen out of numerous applicants.

In the part of lectures, experienced and skilled speakers perfectly combined theory and practice when explaining transmission electron microscopy, cryo-electron microscopy, and direct electron detectors and so on.

In a two-day practice, the trainees were able to get hands-on experience supervised by professional trainers from the university and Institute of Biophysics of CAS, helping them truly master the techniques.

The course included operation of negative staining electron microscope and cryo-electron microscopy, sample preparation and data processing.

At the end of the workshop, trainees had an opportunity to discuss their practical problems and get replies from the lecturers. The communication helped enhance their capacity in solving future problems.

The workshop was co-held by Tsinghua University, Institute of Biophysics of CAS, and Biophysical Society of China and Thermo Fisher Scientific (TFS).

The twenty-first century belongs to life sciences.

As one of the leading disciplines of modern life science research, structural biology focuses on the structures and functions of biomacromolecules, which can solve a series of major science issues to better explain the phenomena of life.

It will also greatly promote the research and development of new drugs based on biomolecular structures.

In recent years, the rapid development of cryo-electron microscopy has renewed the research perspective of structural biology and pushed forward its growth.

The 3D EM boasts many significant advantages that X-ray crystallography and NMR spectroscopy do not have.

With its vigorous development in recent years, the demand of researchers for acquiring the technology has continued to increase.

The success of this workshop has proved the importance of cryo-electron microscopy in the study of modern structural biology.

By equipping more science workers with technology, the training also helped promote China's development in the field.