3D-EM
Cellular electron microscopy has been a key technique for understanding the cell’s core elements and mechanisms since the 1950s. Electron microscopic methods have laid the foundation for a number of Nobel Prizes and have given us much of the basic understanding of human cells’ overall structure, physiology and mechanisms—basically the foundation of all modern medicine.

In recent years, electron microscopy has undergone extremely rapid development through a combination of significantly better optics, sample processing, detectors and image processing. The development has given rise to the so-called “Resolution Revolution,” which in recent years has gradually increased the average resolution of biological preparations significantly. Part of the discoveries and methodology resulted in a Nobel Prize to Richard Henderson, Jaques Dubochet and Joachim Frank. At the beginning of this revolution, a visionary decision of the then Karolinska Institutet’s (KI’s) leadership was made to build premises for a future electron microscopy center nearby the Biomedicum building at the KI Solna campus. These premises have now been built specifically for high-end biomedical electron microscopy. During 2019-2020 we will equip the newly built KI 3D-EM center with the best possible equipment and thereby enable a much broader group of KI researchers to utilize the enormous advances in electron microscopy in recent years.

Instruments available
Electron microscopes
Available for use:
120 kV LaB6microscope: Talos 120C G2 with Ceta-D detector
300 kV cold-FEG microscope: Krios G3i with Gatan K3 detector and Ceta-D detector.
Aquilos 2 cryo-FIB-SEM
Leica SP8 cryo-confocal microscope
Sample preparation
Available:
- Leica Microtome 1
- Leica Microtome 2
- Vitrobot Mk 1
- Vitrobot Mk 4
- Glow discharger
- Plasma cleaner
Access and booking
Only registered users can have an access to the facility. Registration is to be done at 3D-EM Core Facility Service and must be approved by PI of the user. The PI provides each user with project number to facilitate the payment via iLab booking system.
Teaching and training
We will arrange courses and workshops. However, users are encouraged to receive personal training followed by a test that will open the access to the 120 kV Talos microscope. Please contact us on 3d-em@cmb.ki.se for more details.
Prices for service
Prices for service and access for equipment currently available (including local overhead):
Internal | External* | Companies* | |
---|---|---|---|
Aquilos 2 RT 3h | 1050 | 1050 | 5000 |
Aquilos 2 RT/cryo 24h | 2500 | 2500 | 15000 |
Krios 3h | 2000 | 2000 | 20000 |
Krios 24h | 5000 | 5000 | 50000 |
Talos 120C 3h | 600 | 600 | 6000 |
SP8 cryo-confocal 24h | 800 | 800 | 8000 |
*external/company usage of the Aquilos2, Krios and SP8 cryo-confocal requires facility manager/director support for setup/startup and that is billed at 550 SEK per hour. Training time is free for KI personnel but charged at 550 SEK per hour for external/companies. International academic customers pay double hourly microscope fees, all other costs same.
Contact us

Martin Hällberg
Facility director
Amy Bondy
Facility manager
Abrahan Hernandez
Facility manager
Sergej Masich
Facility managerPublications resulting from 3D-EM facility use
Mass Spectrometry of RNA-Binding Proteins during Liquid-Liquid Phase Separation Reveals Distinct Assembly Mechanisms and Droplet Architectures.
Sahin C, Motso A, Gu X, Feyrer H, Lama D, Arndt T, Rising A, Gese GV, Hällberg BM, Marklund EG, Schafer NP, Petzold K, Teilum K, Wolynes PG, Landreh M
J Am Chem Soc 2023 May;():
A "grappling hook" interaction connects self-assembly and chaperone activity of Nucleophosmin 1.
Saluri M, Leppert A, Gese GV, Sahin C, Lama D, Kaldmäe M, Chen G, Elofsson A, Allison TM, Arsenian-Henriksson M, Johansson J, Lane DP, Hällberg BM, Landreh M
PNAS Nexus 2023 Feb;2(2):pgac303
Immunoglobulin germline gene polymorphisms influence the function of SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies.
Pushparaj P, Nicoletto A, Sheward DJ, Das H, Castro Dopico X, Perez Vidakovics L, Hanke L, Chernyshev M, Narang S, Kim S, Fischbach J, Ekström S, McInerney G, Hällberg BM, Murrell B, Corcoran M, Karlsson Hedestam GB
Immunity 2023 Jan;56(1):193-206.e7
Algal photosystem I dimer and high-resolution model of PSI-plastocyanin complex.
Naschberger A, Mosebach L, Tobiasson V, Kuhlgert S, Scholz M, Perez-Boerema A, Ho TTH, Vidal-Meireles A, Takahashi Y, Hippler M, Amunts A
Nat Plants 2022 Oct;():
SERS Hotspot Engineering by Aerosol Self-Assembly of Plasmonic Ag Nanoaggregates with Tunable Interparticle Distance.
Li H, Merkl P, Sommertune J, Thersleff T, Sotiriou GA
Adv Sci (Weinh) 2022 Aug;9(22):e2201133
Non-coding 7S RNA inhibits transcription via mitochondrial RNA polymerase dimerization.
Zhu X, Xie X, Das H, Tan BG, Shi Y, Al-Behadili A, Peter B, Motori E, Valenzuela S, Posse V, Gustafsson CM, Hällberg BM, Falkenberg M
Cell 2022 06;185(13):2309-2323.e24
A bispecific monomeric nanobody induces spike trimer dimers and neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 in vivo.
Hanke L, Das H, Sheward DJ, Perez Vidakovics L, Urgard E, Moliner-Morro A, Kim C, Karl V, Pankow A, Smith NL, Porebski B, Fernandez-Capetillo O, Sezgin E, Pedersen GK, Coquet JM, Hällberg BM, Murrell B, McInerney GM
Nat Commun 2022 01;13(1):155
Black Charcoal for Green and Scalable Wooden Electrodes for Supercapabatteries
Liu, L., Masich, S., Björk, E., Solin, N. & Inganas, O.
Black Charcoal for Green and Scalable Wooden Electrodes for Supercapabatteries. Energy Technology 10.1002/ente.202101072. (2022).
Structural basis for late maturation steps of the human mitoribosomal large subunit
Cipullo M, Gese GV, Khawaja A, Hällberg BM*, Rorbach J*.
Nature Communications, June 16, 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-23617-8.
Plasmonic Coupling in Silver Nanoparticle Aggregates and Their Polymer Composite Films for Near-Infrared Photothermal Biofilm Eradication.
Merkl P, Zhou S, Zaganiaris A, Shahata M, Eleftheraki A, Thersleff T, Sotiriou GA
ACS Appl Nano Mater 2021 May;4(5):5330-5339
Antiviral Activity of Silver, Copper Oxide and Zinc Oxide Nanoparticle Coatings against SARS-CoV-2.
Merkl P, Long S, McInerney GM, Sotiriou GA
Nanomaterials (Basel) 2021 May;11(5):
Structure-guided multivalent nanobodies block SARS-CoV-2 infection and suppress mutational escape.
Koenig PA, Das H, Liu H, Kümmerer BM, Gohr FN, Jenster LM, Schiffelers LDJ, Tesfamariam YM, Uchima M, Wuerth JD, Gatterdam K, Ruetalo N, Christensen MH, Fandrey CI, Normann S, Tödtmann JMP, Pritzl S, Hanke L, Boos J, Yuan M, Zhu X, Schmid-Burgk JL, Kato H, Schindler M, Wilson IA, Geyer M, Ludwig KU, Hällberg BM, Wu NC, Schmidt FI
Science 2021 02;371(6530):
Mechanistic Insights into Regulation of the ALC1 Remodeler by the Nucleosome Acidic Patch.
Lehmann LC, Bacic L, Hewitt G, Brackmann K, Sabantsev A, Gaullier G, Pytharopoulou S, Degliesposti G, Okkenhaug H, Tan S, Costa A, Skehel JM, Boulton SJ, Deindl S
Cell Rep 2020 Dec;33(12):108529
Selection, biophysical and structural analysis of synthetic nanobodies that effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2.
Custódio TF, Das H, Sheward DJ, Hanke L, Pazicky S, Pieprzyk J, et al
Nat Commun 2020 11;11(1):5588
A latent lineage potential in resident neural stem cells enables spinal cord repair.
Llorens-Bobadilla E, Chell JM, Le Merre P, Wu Y, Zamboni M, Bergenstråhle J, et al
Science 2020 10;370(6512):
An alpaca nanobody neutralizes SARS-CoV-2 by blocking receptor interaction.
Hanke L, Vidakovics Perez L, Sheward DJ, Das H, Schulte T, Moliner-Morro A, et al
Nat Commun 2020 09;11(1):4420