# CryoEM Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2020 · $478,552

## Abstract

Core 3: CryoEM
Summary
Since the CRNA’s inception, cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) has been a key structural biology technology
provided through the CryoEM Core. During CRNA 1.0 we made many advances in developing cryoEM
procedures for studying the structures of small RNAs, initiated CryoEM projects with several CRNA
investigators, and held cryoEM workshops to inspire CRNA members and others to use this powerful structure
technique. Our most notable achievements are reaching a major technical milestone in determining a
subnanometer resolution cryoEM structure of the 30 kDa HIV-1 dimerization initiation site (DIS) RNA dimer and
revising the current Rev response element (RRE) structure with rigorous cryoEM structure validation protocols.
These studies were done in collaboration with multiple CRNA groups, including Marchant, Summers and
Case, to integrate structural information from cryoEM, NMR and molecular dynamics. The DIS structure
represents the smallest macromolecule structure determined to date by cryoEM. Moving into CRNA 2.0, we
have extended our team to include investigators with complementary expertise from Baylor College of
Medicine, the University of Virginia and NIH. We have set three aims: (i) to utilize state-of-the-art cryoEM as a
tool for determining the highest possible resolution structures of RNAs, RNA-protein complexes and HIV-
related protein complexes, in collaboration with investigators from the CRNA projects and throughout the
CRNA; (ii) to develop new experimental and computational protocols in cryoEM for characterizing challenging
specimens of RNA and RNA-protein complexes, which are either small, compositionally or conformationally
variable, or both; and (iii) to integrate measurements from NMR, X-ray crystallography, cryoEM, molecular
dynamics simulation, and biochemistry for partial or intact biological complexes relevant to the CRNA research
missions in order to understand their structure and function. In addition, we will continue to offer systematic,
hands-on cryoEM training to CRNA students and postdoctoral fellows so that they will become more versatile
structural biologists in the coming decades.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9993263
- **Project number:** 5U54AI150470-09
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** Wah Chiu
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $478,552
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2012-09-17 → 2022-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9993263

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9993263, CryoEM Core (5U54AI150470-09). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9993263. Licensed CC0.

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