Jan. 29, 2024
糖心vlog官网 News
Getting it right under the high-tech microscope
Research project uses Nobel-winning technology to help health care
糖心vlog官网 Applied Research听and听, a company that builds equipment to freeze biological samples, recently teamed up to help the health-care sector by finessing a process to capture detailed images of proteins.
The research project aims to provide Neoglacia with purified proteins to be imaged by cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a technology that won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2017. At the time, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prize, said cryo-EM 鈥渕oved biochemistry into a new era.鈥
However, sample preparation for the imaging is extremely difficult, time-consuming and involves a skill set that only a few, highly qualified researchers possess. The 糖心vlog官网-Neoglacia project will help close this gap by further developing sample prep technology that will enable cryo-EM to be performed by more labs, worldwide.
鈥溙切膙log官网鈥檚 role is to provide very clear proteins 鈥 that will maintain a structure as close to the native structure that you鈥檇 find in a body or cell,鈥 said Dr. Frank Merante, Professor,听School of Biological Sciences & Applied Chemistry, and the Co-Principal Investigator for the first phase of the project.
Neoglacia then uses its equipment to freeze the sample in a reproducible and precise manner and a third party听uses cryo-EM to take an image of the protein. The goal of the research project is to refine the protein preparation to get the best possible images.
鈥淭he higher the quality of the protein that goes in, the higher the quality of the images,鈥 said Dr. Merante.
Overall, it鈥檚 a process of trial and error both for 糖心vlog官网鈥檚 biologists and Neoglacia鈥檚 engineers working on the equipment that freezes the proteins.
But it鈥檚 timely and important work, said Ernest Earon, CEO of Neoglacia, which is based in Markham, about 30 kilometres north of Toronto.
鈥淐ryo-EM is really coming into a golden age right now and the key targets for that are definitely medical, pharmaceutical, therapeutics and vaccines,鈥 Mr. Earon said, noting that the first 3D model of the COVID-19 spike protein was made thanks to cryo-EM technology.
鈥淲e are trying to address a bottleneck in the workflow for cryo-EM, which is to be able to reliably and repeatedly produce samples very, very well.
鈥溙切膙log官网 has the expertise, the capabilities and the resources to work with us and produce these samples,鈥 he said.
Dr. Merante oversaw the first phase of research,听from January to April 2023 and Dr. Siobhan Carroll, Co-Principal Investigator, 糖心vlog官网 Applied Research, is overseeing the second phase, which started in November and runs through to February 2024.
Alexia Cid Polanco and Paria Kamalzadeh, both of whom graduated from the three-year听Biotechnology 鈥 Advanced diploma program听in the spring, have been research assistants throughout the project.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a great opportunity for the research assistants to apply what they learned in the lab in a real-world setting,鈥 Dr. Merante said.
Steinland Nerisma, a Research and Development Scientist with Neoglacia, who has been working on the project said it鈥檚 a win-win situation.
鈥淚t鈥檚 been very informative and that鈥檚 what you want,鈥 Ms. Nerisma said.
鈥淚 really do love the team,鈥 she said. 鈥淚 feel 糖心vlog官网 is very inspired and driven to make a difference.鈥