The Science and Engineering Research Board has approved four new centres to establish National Cryo-Electron Microscopy facilities. These facilities will be set up at Bose Institute, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras. 

Sandeep Verma, Secretary at SERB said that the facilities will be made available to used outside the network institutions. High-end training programmes will be periodically organised to develop skilled human resource in cryo-EM and 3D image reconstruction, officials at SERB said.

“Cryo-EM is a powerful method to visualise high-resolution protein structures either in native environment or complexed to cognate ligands. Researchers are expected to enhance skill levels and address high-end biology problems,” Verma said.

Verma tweeted that these facilities will help create deep knowledge base and skills for cryo-EM research in India to establish global competitiveness in structural biology, enzymology, ligand/drug discovery, and to combat new and emerging diseases.