Harvard Cryo-EM Center for Structural Biology

The Harvard Cryo-Electron Microscopy Center for Structural Biology

The Harvard Cryo-Electron Microscopy Center for Structural Biology is a joint effort by Harvard Medical School, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston Children’s Hospital, Massachusetts General Hospital, and Harvard University to provide state-of-the-art cryo-EM instrumentation and expertise for the structural biology community. This user facility offers consultation and training by staff in specimen preparation, microscope operation, image acquisition, and data analysis. 

Additionally, the Molecular Electron Microscopy Suite (MEMS) at Harvard Medical School is a separate user resource currently available to qualified researchers. This user facility offers training and supervision in negative-stain and cryo-transmission electron microscopy. Equipment includes three transmission electron microscopes, two cryo plungers, and sample preparation areas.

 

These Resources are also available to External Academic and Industrial Users!
 

50 structures

Who We Are at the HC2EM!

Recent Publications

2026

Della Syau, Felix Steinruecke, Sophie Roth, Ernst Schmid, Karen Adelman, Johannes C Walter, and Lucas Farnung. 2026. “Structure and Function of IWS1 in Transcription Elongation”. Nucleic Acids Research, 54, Pp. gkag357. doi:10.1093/nar/gkag357
Della Syau, Felix Steinruecke, Sophie Roth, Ernst Schmid, Karen Adelman, Johannes C Walter, and Lucas Farnung. 2026. “Structure and Function of IWS1 in Transcription Elongation”. Nucleic Acids Research, 54, Pp. gkag357. doi:10.1093/nar/gkag357
Benjamin D. Thomson, Melissa D. Marquez, Shaun Rawson, Thiago M. A. dos Santos, Stephen C. Harrison, and Daniel Kahne. 2026. “Structures of Folding Intermediates on BAM Show Diverse Substrates Fold by a Conserved Mechanism”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123, Pp. e2534936123. doi:10.1073/pnas.2534936123
Benjamin D. Thomson, Melissa D. Marquez, Shaun Rawson, Thiago M. A. dos Santos, Stephen C. Harrison, and Daniel Kahne. 2026. “Structures of Folding Intermediates on BAM Show Diverse Substrates Fold by a Conserved Mechanism”. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 123, Pp. e2534936123. doi:10.1073/pnas.2534936123
Sonomi Yamaguchi, Samantha G. Fernandez, Douglas R. Wassarman, Marlen Lüders, Frank Schwede, and Philip J. Kranzusch. 2026. “Nucleotide Signals Coordinate Activation and Inhibition of Bacterial Immunity”, 652, 8111, Pp. 978-985,. doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10135-0
Sonomi Yamaguchi, Samantha G. Fernandez, Douglas R. Wassarman, Marlen Lüders, Frank Schwede, and Philip J. Kranzusch. 2026. “Nucleotide Signals Coordinate Activation and Inhibition of Bacterial Immunity”, 652, 8111, Pp. 978-985,. doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10135-0
Nathalie R. Lavoie and Ekaterina E. Heldwein. 2026. “Reproducible Sample Preparation of Virus-Infected Cells for Cryo-FIB ET Using Manual Plunge Freezing”. Bio-protocol, 16, 1, Pp. e5563+. doi:10.21769/BioProtoc.5563
Nathalie R. Lavoie and Ekaterina E. Heldwein. 2026. “Reproducible Sample Preparation of Virus-Infected Cells for Cryo-FIB ET Using Manual Plunge Freezing”. Bio-protocol, 16, 1, Pp. e5563+. doi:10.21769/BioProtoc.5563
Zishuo Yu, Pradeep Sathyanarayana, Cong Liu, Joel M.J. Tan, Pan Yang, Biswajit Das, Side Hu, Xiaoyi Fan, Chenggong Ji, Sandra K. Weller, Mrinal Shekhar, Donald M. Coen, Philip J. Kranzusch, Joseph J. Loparo, and Jonathan Abraham. 2026. “Mechanisms of HSV-1 Helicase-Primase Inhibition and Replication Fork Complex Assembly”. Cell, 189, 2, Pp. 478-494.e18,. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.11.041
Zishuo Yu, Pradeep Sathyanarayana, Cong Liu, Joel M.J. Tan, Pan Yang, Biswajit Das, Side Hu, Xiaoyi Fan, Chenggong Ji, Sandra K. Weller, Mrinal Shekhar, Donald M. Coen, Philip J. Kranzusch, Joseph J. Loparo, and Jonathan Abraham. 2026. “Mechanisms of HSV-1 Helicase-Primase Inhibition and Replication Fork Complex Assembly”. Cell, 189, 2, Pp. 478-494.e18,. doi:10.1016/j.cell.2025.11.041

2025

2025. “Molecular Organization of the New World Arenavirus Spike Glycoprotein Complex”. doi:10.1038/s41564-025-02085-6
2025. “Molecular Organization of the New World Arenavirus Spike Glycoprotein Complex”. doi:10.1038/s41564-025-02085-6
2025. “Structures of Human Organellar SPFH Protein Complexes”, 16, 1, Pp. 10064+. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65078-3
2025. “Structures of Human Organellar SPFH Protein Complexes”, 16, 1, Pp. 10064+. doi:10.1038/s41467-025-65078-3
2025. “Translational Activators Align MRNAs at the Small Mitoribosomal Subunit for Translation Initiation”. doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01726-y
2025. “Translational Activators Align MRNAs at the Small Mitoribosomal Subunit for Translation Initiation”. doi:10.1038/s41594-025-01726-y
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