Acquisition of Glacios 2 to Enhance Cryo-EM Access in the Southwest - Project Summary/Abstract We seek funding to acquire a Thermo Fisher Glacios 2 cryo-electron microscope (cryo-EM) for the University of Arizona (UA). This will be the first cryo-EM instrument on campus and the first of its kind in the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, or Nevada) and fill a major gap in the ability to initiate and optimize cryo-EM projects. This advanced 200 kV system will initially benefit 14 research groups from UA and Arizona State University (ASU), addressing a significant gap in cryo-EM access in the Southwest. Ongoing research at these institutions, supported by NIH funding, encompasses areas such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, neurodegeneration, drug resistance, infectious diseases, and the discovery of new therapeutics. Acquiring this instrument will contribute to ongoing breakthroughs in these fields and meet the growing demand for this cutting- edge technology as our biomedical complex and EM user base at UA continues to expand, making access to reliable resources increasingly important for the next wave of breakthroughs. The instrument will be housed in UA’s centrally managed Electron Microscopy Core Facility, which currently lacks cryo-EM capability but possesses considerable expertise in cryo-EM due to recent strategic faculty hires with proven track records in cryo-EM and structural biology research. The EM community at UA and the management team in the current facility have well-established workflows for user training, data collection, management, and analysis. The facility will ensure fair access across the region, and the proposed instrument will support multiple applications, including single-particle cryo-EM, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) screening, micro-electron diffraction (MicroED), and methods development. These capabilities are made possible by features of the proposed configuration, which includes a cold field emission gun (FEG), a Selectris Energy Filter, and a Falcon 4i direct electron detector, allowing for high-resolution, high-throughput imaging that is nearly comparable to more expensive high-end systems but at significantly lower operating costs. The University of Arizona has committed to providing ongoing institutional support, including dedicated space, staffing, and financial contributions from multiple colleges and centers. This investment will not only enhance hands-on training opportunities for a new generation of students and researchers to strengthen the biomedical research workforce throughout the Southwest but will also serve as an essential regional hub to expand NIH-funded structural biology research nationally.
