# Expansion of the ‘Getting Started in Cryo-EM’ course into a comprehensive theory and practice curriculum

> **NIH NIH R25** · CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · 2022 · $72,413

## Abstract

Project Summary
Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) is a rapidly emerging technology for structural biology. While
excitement and demand for the technology are high, the pace of training cryo-EM practitioners lags far behind.
There are two major hurdles to the development of effective training programs: (1) potential learners come
from a wide range of backgrounds and career stages, from graduate students to established structural
biologists; and (2) learning cryo-EM requires many hours of hands-on “behind the wheel” training on
specialized, expensive equipment that is often unavailable to learners at their home institutions. While some
hands-on schools exist for cryoEM, they train only a handful of students a year, while demand for the
technique requires orders of magnitude more. Workshops enroll more students, but are too short to teach all
the necessary theory and lack a hands-on component. To train a skilled workforce of cryo-EM practitioners,
here I propose to expand upon my successful “Getting Started in Cryo-EM” video lectures and create a
comprehensive online curriculum covering the theory and practice of all major cryo-EM modalities including
cryo-EM single particle reconstruction (SPR), electron cryotomography (cryo-ET) and microcrystal electron
diffraction (micro-ED). This curriculum will include many tens of hours of new videos and also the supporting
materials needed to maximize the usefulness of these videos. More specifically, my colleagues and I will
produce new videos teaching the theory and practice of cryo-ET (including special sample prep issues like
correlated light and electron microscopy and cryo-FIB milling), micro-ED, and facility management/advanced
topics. We will also produce videos that introduce basic principles of cryo-EM image processing and prepare
students to move from our materials to the specialized tutorials already available for several popular image
processing packages. We will also create supporting materials including homework problems, open-ended and
multiple-choice exam questions, training manuals with specific standardized practice exercises, and plans for
training programs. Together with staff from the national cryo-EM service centers and my fellow curriculum
development program awardees, I will work to develop a “merit badge” system to certify cryo-EM practitioners
on specific skills and instruments. Materials will be designed in modules that can be mixed and matched to
meet the specific needs of the learner. In conjunction with supervised training at a user’s home facility or
national cryo-EM service center, the curriculum will offer everything a student needs to understand the theory
of, and begin practicing, their desired cryo-EM technique.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10437759
- **Project number:** 5R25EY029128-05
- **Recipient organization:** CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
- **Principal Investigator:** GRANT J JENSEN
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $72,413
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2021-06-01 → 2022-10-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10437759

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10437759, Expansion of the ‘Getting Started in Cryo-EM’ course into a comprehensive theory and practice curriculum (5R25EY029128-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10437759. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*