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Case Western Reserve University Gets a Microscope Developed by This Year's Nobel Winners

photo of Case Western Reserve University
CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY
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CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY

Case Western Reserve University is going to be getting a high-tech microscope developed by this year’s winners of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry.

 

The cryo-electron microscope produces clear, 3-D images of molecules. It costs as much as $7 million.

 

Mark Chance, vice dean for research at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Medicine, explains how this microscope can benefit future biomedical research.

We’re designing molecules to block cancer or block Huntington’s. But in order to make that drug development process efficient, we need structures of those target molecules we’re going for. And we want to see how the drug molecule fits in to the various nooks and crannies in the protein structure.

 

This microscope would be the first in Ohio. Chance says he is talking with Ohio State University about organizing a consortium to share its use and cost.