Gregor Weiss (ETHZ 2022)
Bringing the resolution revolution to the patient
The visual analysis of tissue samples is a crucial element in clinical diagnostics. It provides insights into structural changes of cells during a disease and can serve as basis for a personalized therapy.
However, current analytical methods only analyze already know disease markers or work in a resolution range of cellular organelles, hence being “blind” to details on protein level. A technique which revolutionized structural biology and enabled groundbreaking insights into the molecular basis of diseases is cryogenic electron microscopy. By flash-freezing proteins or entire cells, their native architecture is preserved and cryo-electron microscopy can provide unprecedented views on their structure. The application of this technique, however, was so far limited to classical laboratory model organisms – without a direct impact on individual patients. In this project, we will develop workflows to apply this cutting-edge imaging technique directly on clinical samples. The integration of cryo-electron microscopy into clinical diagnostic workflows will a allow a true multi-scale diagnosis of a disease and can guide us to personalized therapeutic treatments.