Titan Krios

The Titan Krios is a fully automated cryo-electron microscope from Thermo Fisher Scientific, designed for rapid, stable, high-resolution data collection on frozen-hydrated samples.

Four Titan Krios microscopes are available at eBIC for academic users. Krios I, II, & IV are equipped with the latest generation Ametek-Gatan Bio-quantum-K3 detectors and energy filter. Krios III is equipped with the Thermo Fisher Scientific Falcon 4i detector & Selectris X energy filter. 

Cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and cryogenic electron tomography (cryo-ET) data can be collected automatically on all four Krios microscope. 

Thermo Fisher Scientific's EPU and Tomography software, with aberration-free image shift data collection (AFIS), are primarily used for single particle analysis (SPA) and tomographic data collection at eBIC, respectively. SerialEM is also available on all four Krios microscopes to trained users who can operate SerialEM independently.

All Krios microscopes are equipped with Volta style phase plates, greatly boosting low-resolution contrast, facilitating cryo-EM on small proteins and cryo-ET applications.

The fifth Krios is a dedicated microscope for use by commercial clients. As part of eBIC for Industry, it provides an important resource for structure-based drug discovery, for antibody and vaccine research, and to progress the study of nanotechnologies and nanomedicines.

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Benefits for structural biology

• Reduced time to data and reduced cost per structure enabled by automated sample loader and long unattended operation.
• Robotic loading of up to 12 frozen-hydrated samples for increased throughput.
• Reduced installation and operating requirements: environmental instrument enclosure provides optimal thermal and acoustic shielding.
• Optimised connectivity to latest hardware and software developments.
• Minimal thermal drift due to ConstantPower™ lenses. 

Who should apply for use?

eBIC particularly encourage applications from users with frozen-hydrated specimens that have been optimised in their home laboratories, and which would greatly benefit from the increased data quality and throughput the Krios offers.

Loading samples

• It is recommended to send up to four pre-clipped grids to be loaded into the microscope. Sending a higher number of grids or sending unclipped grids will likely result in longer loading times.
   
• Backup samples can be brought to eBIC, if this has been agreed in the proposal. These samples must be listed on the session Experimental Risk Assessment (ERA).
   
• Local contacts load the Krios once per 48 hour session (for both Block Allocation Group & Rapid sessions).
   
• Super-users (BAG sessions) may operate the microscope according to their individual accreditation.