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Peer-reviewedCC BYNature communications

Carbon nanotubes as the supporting film for cryo-EM specimen preparation.

  • Jiling Song1,2,3
  • Zhengni Wang1,2,3
  • Duanliang Zhou4,5
  • Zi Yuan6,7
  • Xia Jia1,2,3,8
  • Xiaopeng Li1,2,3,8
  • Chenhui Zhang9
  • Yongbo Liu3,8,10
  • Yu Rao3,8,10
  • Dongju Wang1,3
  • Kaili Jiang4,5
  • Hong-Wei Wang1,2,3,8
1 more authors
  • Nan Liu11
11 affiliations
  1. 1School of Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  2. 2Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Protein Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  3. 3Beijing Frontier Research Center for Biological Structures, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  4. 4State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  5. 5Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  6. 6State Key Laboratory of Low Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. [email protected].
  7. 7Frontier Science Center for Quantum Information, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. [email protected].
  8. 8Tsinghua-Peking Joint Center for Life Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  9. 9School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
  10. 10School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  11. 11School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. [email protected].
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Abstract

Specimen preparation is a critical and rate-limiting step in cryo-EM structural analysis, primarily due to challenges posed by the air-water interface. In this study, we introduce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a one-dimensional fibrous support material to address this issue. CNTs interact with macromolecules, effectively protecting them from air-water interfaces, and macromolecules arrange themselves around CNTs in various orientations. Furthermore, CNTs biofunctionalized with affinity tags exhibit strong specificity in binding target macromolecules, facilitating direct purification of targets from cell lysates and on-grid assembly of complexes for subsequent cryo-EM analysis. We also demonstrate that CNT grids are compatible with cell culturing, allowing for seamless integration into the cryo-EM characterization workflow for cellular structures. We anticipate that these properties will make the CNT network a promising support for cryo-EM.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{song2026carbon,
  title = {{Carbon nanotubes as the supporting film for cryo-EM specimen preparation.}},
  author = {Jiling Song and Zhengni Wang and Duanliang Zhou and Zi Yuan and Xia Jia and Xiaopeng Li and Chenhui Zhang and Yongbo Liu and Yu Rao and Dongju Wang and Kaili Jiang and Hong-Wei Wang and Nan Liu},
  journal = {Nature communications},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77953-8},
  url = {https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907436},
  note = {CC BY},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Carbon nanotubes as the supporting film for cryo-EM specimen preparation.
AU  - Jiling Song
AU  - Zhengni Wang
AU  - Duanliang Zhou
AU  - Zi Yuan
AU  - Xia Jia
AU  - Xiaopeng Li
AU  - Chenhui Zhang
AU  - Yongbo Liu
AU  - Yu Rao
AU  - Dongju Wang
AU  - Kaili Jiang
AU  - Hong-Wei Wang
AU  - Nan Liu
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/21
JO  - Nature communications
DO  - 10.1038/s41467-026-77953-8
UR  - https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42907436
AB  - Specimen preparation is a critical and rate-limiting step in cryo-EM structural analysis, primarily due to challenges posed by the air-water interface. In this study, we introduce carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as a one-dimensional fibrous support material to address this issue. CNTs interact with macromolecules, effectively protecting them from air-water interfaces, and macromolecules arrange themselves around CNTs in various orientations. Furthermore, CNTs biofunctionalized with affinity tags exhibit strong specificity in binding target macromolecules, facilitating direct purification of targets from cell lysates and on-grid assembly of complexes for subsequent cryo-EM analysis. We also demonstrate that CNT grids are compatible with cell culturing, allowing for seamless integration into the cryo-EM characterization workflow for cellular structures. We anticipate that these properties will make the CNT network a promising support for cryo-EM.
SN  - 2041-1723
ER  -