chameleon®

A rapid and efficient path to quality frozen grids for cryo-EM

Recent advances in cryo-EM have led to an explosion of interest in the technique for challenging structural biology projects. Producing quality frozen grids remains one of the major bottlenecks in the structure determination process. Currently, highly skilled manual handling is required; causing a significant learning curve. Feedback on ice quality requires screening on an electron microscope, time which could be used for more productive data collection. chameleon’s aim is to enable automated, rapid progress to the perfect ice thickness for a range of samples by offering:

• blot-free high speed plunging
• automated grid handling
• on-board optical grid screening
• intuitive automated workflows
• sample tracking and recording
• cryogen level sensing/temperature control

The chameleon story...

chameleon is a commercial development of the successful Spotiton system, an idea conceived and brought to life by the groups of Bridget Carragher and Clint Potter at New York Structural Biology Centre (NYSBC). Realising the limitations of existing grid preparation practices, they set out to develop a robust and repeatable technique for specimen vitrification based on small volume dispensing using inkjet technology. The 'Spotition' (first published in 2012) as it became known, then underwent a series of iterative improvements in-house and became instrumental in an increasing number of high quality structures and cutting edge research papers on air water interface effects published by the team. chameleon distils out the advantages of Spotition and builds in our proven knowledge of process automation in the field of structural biology.