Cryo-EM Seed Grant

Applications accepted for Track 1 (budget of $50,000) or Track 2 (budget of up to $25,000)

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) projects will include cryo-EM sample preparation, data acquisition and analysis of different types of cryo-EM data, under biological and/or materials science contexts. Particularly, we encourage collaborators from outside a traditional structural biology background. Examples include but are not limited to: cell biologists interested in cellular tomography (cryo-ET), researchers using proteomics/genomics who seek structural context (e.g., AlphaFold predictomes), material scientists characterizing nanoscale samples, and computational groups applying multimodal AI to cryo-EM segmentation and analyses.

In-kind support will include training and user access fees, sample preparation, associated consumables, and computational costs.

Competitive projects will identify at least one graduate student or postdoctoral scholar who will devote at least 15% time to the project. The student or postdoc will receive full-stack training including freezing cryo-EM grids, microscope operation, and necessary coding/scripting skills required for data processing.

Interested collaborators are encouraged to reach out to discuss and work on the proposal together.

Cryo-EM is led by Haoqing Wang (hwangab@stanford.edu).