When it comes to taking a closer look, a camera can only zoom so far. But an $8 million microscope can zoom really, really close, to a molecular level, helping scientists understand viruses and diseases.

The microscope is part new Cryo-EM Facility at the University of Alberta.

This new tool can provide 3D images from a frozen protein or purified DNA taken from a human sample, like blood or saliva. It’s data that once took months or years to process can now be analyzed in just 24 hours.

“With COVID-19, that time was reduced to a couple of months to two to three months within a Cryo-EM Facility … and once you obtain the structure, then the drug development process can start on a rational basis, and then of course you have to do the chemistry and all that,” explained Matthias Götte, the di

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