Cryo-immobilisation vitrifies the sample in milliseconds, locking all the macromolecular components, elements and structures as they were in the living state for very high-resolution analysis.

The purpose is to preserve biological structures in their native, liquid-like state by preventing the formation of damaging ice crystals.

A sample is spread into a thin film across an EM grid, blotted to remove excess liquid, and then rapidly submerged into a liquid cryogen.

It uses ethane as the cryogenic, which is cooled to a liquid phase using liquid nitrogen.

Equipment available

• Leica EM GP2