该团队安装在定制的现代Titan Krios显微镜中的激光相位板（LPP）通过改进样本运动校正、从早期帧中恢复信息以及粒子可视化、3D分类和对齐，提高了小蛋白质单粒子重建的分辨率。这些进展以标准离焦范围和重建程序为主题，但也为LPP量身定制的协议打开了大门，通过利用本文演示的LPP提供进一步的改进。
据了解，相位板原则上可以克服电子冷冻显微镜（cryo-EM）中图像对比度差的问题以及由此导致的小蛋白质结构重建的限制。然而，以前的设计一直不稳定，并损害了高分辨率信号。他们无法超越标准冷冻电镜所取得的结果。
附：英文原文
Title: Laser phase plate improves structure determination of small proteins by cryo-EM
Author: Petar N. Petrov, Jessie T. Zhang, Jonathan Remis, Jeremy J. Axelrod, Hang Cheng, Eric S. Cooper, Ian K. Hicklin, Shahar Sandhaus, Cooper Schnurr, Robert M. Glaeser, Holger Müller
Issue&Volume: 2026-06-11
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 high-resolution 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.
DOI: aeh0665
Source: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aeh0665