Development of Automated-to-Autonomous Cryo-Electron Microscopy as a System of Systems

Abstract

A new era of life science research has arrived in the use of electron cryo-microscopy. The combination of electron cryo-microscopy with single-particle analysis enables us to analyze structures of proteins and their complexes at the atomic resolution, which is becoming a key technology of structural biology. In addition, the combination of cryo-EM and electron tomography is revealing new and marvelous views of cells and tissues. However, cryo-EM images of living organisms and their components have a low signal-to-noise ratio, due to weakness against electron dosages, in terms of information technology, and thus automatic image acquisition system is necessary because a large number of images are required. In this paper, we will introduce the current efforts of automatic electron microscopy for this purpose, including the system we have been developing. From the standpoint of ‘System of Systems’, we will discuss open system and IoT as specifications for the automation of electron microscopy systems, and propose the necessity of a feedback system based on procedure logs.