Wan William
Department of Biochemistry and Center for Structural Biology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA.
Emerg Top Life Sci. 2025 Apr 29;9(1):ETLS20240013. doi: 10.1042/ETLS20240013.
In the past decade, cryo-electron microscopy and single particle analysis (SPA) have quickly become key methods in structural biology. In particular, increased access to equipment and streamlined software has enabled new users to successfully carry out SPA projects. At the same time, cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) has also made great technical strides, most notably with cellular cryo-ET. While many challenges remain, developments in hardware and automation have made cellular cryo-ET specimen preparation and data collection more accessible than ever. There is also a growing field of cryo-ET software developers, but the wide variety of biological specimens and scientific goals that can be pursued using cryo-ET makes it difficult to develop processing workflows analogous to those in SPA; this becomes a major barrier to entry for new users. In this perspective, I make a case that the development of standardized metadata can play a key role in reducing such barriers and allow for an ecosystem that enables new users to enter the field while retaining a diversity of processing approaches.
在过去十年中，冷冻电子显微镜和单颗粒分析（SPA）迅速成为结构生物学中的关键方法。特别是，设备的更多可及性和简化的软件使新用户能够成功开展SPA项目。与此同时，冷冻电子断层扫描（cryo-ET）也取得了巨大的技术进步，尤其是在细胞冷冻电子断层扫描方面。尽管仍存在许多挑战，但硬件和自动化方面的发展使细胞冷冻电子断层扫描的样本制备和数据采集比以往任何时候都更容易实现。冷冻电子断层扫描软件开发领域也在不断发展，然而，使用冷冻电子断层扫描可研究的生物样本种类繁多，科学目标各异，这使得开发类似于SPA的处理工作流程变得困难；这成为新用户进入该领域的主要障碍。从这个角度来看，我认为标准化元数据的开发在减少此类障碍方面可以发挥关键作用，并有助于形成一个生态系统，使新用户能够进入该领域，同时保留多种处理方法。
