Cryo-FIB Workflow for Fabricating Thin Lamellae Using TESCAN S8000G

Understanding cellular ultrastructure and function, ideally in the native state requires a powerful analytical method. Cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has become a well-established tool to study frozen vitrified specimens in a close-to-native state. A large proportion of samples in structural biology, such as plungefrozen eukaryotic cells, exceed the accessible dimensions (~500 nm) for TEM imaging and are highly topographic. Cryo-sectioning is the standard method used for thinning and slicing such samples. However, data quality is easily degraded due to artefacts caused by knife marks, compression or crevasses. [1]