New international collaboration poised to unlock more health-related discoveries

In order to expand access to cutting-edge research technology, the University of California, Santa Cruz, is welcoming institutions in the United States and abroad to use its powerful cryogenic-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) facility that scientists across campus use to understand the molecular machinery that operates in the cells of our bodies and underlies human health and disease.

Cryo-EM is a state-of-the-art structural biology method used to determine the three-dimensional shapes of large proteins and nucleic acids, and the complex assemblies of those molecules that drive the vital functions of living cells. UC Santa Cruz secured grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to purchase a new electron microscope—installed in late 2020—and a new camera that was installed in November 2024. 

The UC Santa Cruz Biomolecular cryoEM Facility is part of the Science Division but operates across others. Faculty in the sciences and at Baskin School of Engineering have been using the facility to research several different targets, such as ribosome and circadian-clock machineries, immune-response regulators, childhood viruses, and much more.

For instance, biomolecular engineering professor Rebecca Dubois has used cryo-EM to discover new structures on the surface antigens of influenza virus and RSV that drugmakers could one day target to treat those illnesses. “It is such a privilege to have access to the cryo-EM facility. It has expanded my lab’s capabilities to visualize how antibodies target important sites on the virus and block infection,” Dubois said. “It’s like finding a virus’s Achilles’ heel.” 

Shared scientific facilities and infrastructure

The international cryo-EM collaboration connects the facility with partners in six different countries. And now, as part of a joint project with the research-education network AmLight, the University of Cape Town, Florida International University, and the Information Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California also have access to the facility.

Leaders across campus say the shared-usage arrangement creates a more inclusive model for structural biology—one where geographic location and infrastructure constraints don’t dictate who gets to contribute.

“This project is breaking down longstanding cost barriers to cryo-EM access,” said Jeffrey Weekley, director of research IT in Information Technology Services at UC Santa Cruz. “It enables researchers in Africa and other underserved regions to participate in data collection and analysis without requiring their own multimillion-dollar microscopes or extensive computing infrastructure.”

Weekley said this type of collaboration work supports the National Science Foundation’s mission to broaden access to advanced scientific infrastructure. He joined UC Santa Cruz just as the cryo-EM facility was being designed, and he conceived and led this effort to launch an international collaboration via AmLight—driven by a desire to break down barriers and broaden the facility’s customer base.

Sustainability through collaboration

To sustain the facility, users are charged. UC Santa Cruz researchers get a discount, and those off campus from other institutions and industries are invited to see if it will meet their needs, and even apply for grants to offset costs. “Since the facility operates on a recharge basis, expanding access beyond campus also directly benefits the sustainability of the facility,” Weekley explained. “It’s not exactly a moonshot project, but the potential impact is enormous.”

In August, the facility’s manager, Vitor Hugo Balasco Serrão, won a nearly $50,000 grant from a new seed-funding program introduced by Science Division Dean Bryan Gaensler to fund projects that meaningfully advance one or more of the division’s strategic pillars: degree-defining experiences, research impact, or DEI in our DNA.

Serrão’s project, for a series of hands-on workshops to train users on cryo-EM data processing, won essentially the maximum amount for an individual seed grant based on its alignment with the Science Division’s research-impact pillar.

“This is the beginning of an exciting new global partnership,” Gaensler said. “We have world-class facilities at UC Santa Cruz, and creative approaches like this greatly increase the impact that these facilities can make on international science.”

Powerful presence and throughput

Standing nearly 8 feet tall and equipped with a state-of-the-art Falcon4i direct electron detector, the Thermo Scientific Glacios microscope is just one of about 230 of its kind in the world. The facility represents the inseparable nature of the research from the information technology that enables it, and positions itself as a one-stop shop that provides access to a complete workflow: from sample preparation and optimization, to automated high-resolution data acquisition and analysis, until the final 3-D reconstruction.

Since UC Santa Cruz researchers started using the facility in 2022, 37 biological structures have been solved, resulting in 13 publications and counting. Cryo-EM plays an increasingly important role in the work of pioneering professors such as Melissa Jurica, Sara Loerch, Carrie Partch, Jevgenij Raskatov, Seth Rubin, Harry Noller, and others. In total, two dozen labs on campus use the facility, in addition to 15 companies across six countries.

As part of the collaboration, University of Cape Town (UCT) structural biologist Jeremy Woodward traveled to visit UC Santa Cruz on September 18 and was introduced to the cryo-EM facility operations by Serrão and Eric Shell, the IT-system administrator of the data processing suite.

UCT currently serves as a cryo-EM hub for South Africa and hopes to expand this into the rest of the continent in the near future. African researchers have several disease targets in mind, including HIV vaccine targets, one of which is currently being investigated at UC Santa Cruz. Serrão said the main goal is to facilitate data transfer and “on-the-fly” data processing locally at UC Santa Cruz to UCT in order to better facilitate storing the hundreds of terabytes generated during each experiment and speed up processing and analysis of the resulting data.

“This project is an example of how international collaboration can accelerate scientific discovery,” Woodward said. “By providing African scientists with access to advanced cryo-EM technology, we can begin unlocking the insights needed to develop new vaccines, medicines, and sustainable technologies that can address Africa’s most pressing challenges.”