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  4. Microsecond Time-Resolved Cryo-EM Based on Jet Vitrification
 
preprint

Microsecond Time-Resolved Cryo-EM Based on Jet Vitrification

Haubner, Michal
•
Williams, Harry M.  
•
Hruby, Jakub
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November 21, 2025

Understanding and ultimately predicting the function of proteins is one of the frontiers in structural biology. This will only be possible if it becomes feasible to routinely observe proteins on the fast timescales on which they perform their tasks. Recently, laser flash melting and revitrification experiments have improved the time resolution of cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) to microseconds, rendering it fast enough to observe the domain motions of proteins that are frequently linked to function. However, observations have been limited to a time window of just a few hundred microseconds. Here, we introduce time-resolved cryo-EM experiments based on jet vitrification that combine microsecond resolution with an observation window of up to seconds. We use a short laser pulse to initiate protein dynamics, and as they unfold, vitrify the sample with a jet of a liquid cryogen to arrest the dynamics at that point in time. We demonstrate that our approach affords near-atomic spatial resolution and a time resolution of 21 μs. This allows us to observe the photoinduced dynamics of the light-driven sodium pump ErNaR on the microsecond to millisecond timescale. Our experiments significantly expand the ability of cryo-EM to observe protein dynamics across multiple timescales.

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Type
preprint
DOI
10.1101/2025.11.21.689681
Author(s)
Haubner, Michal
Williams, Harry M.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Hruby, Jakub
Straub, Monique S.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Guskov, Albert
Kovalev, Kirill

European Molecular Biology Laboratory

Drabbels, Marcel
Lorenz, Ulrich J.  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Date Issued

2025-11-21

Publisher

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
LND  
FunderGrant Number

OCENW.XS23.3.027

TMCG-2_213773

U54AI170752

Available on Infoscience
November 24, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/256238
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