Winning the Planning and Budgeting Committee (PBC) tender will enable the Technion to acquire advanced low-temperature (cryo) microscopy systems for the Center for Soft Materials Microscopy, in collaboration with the Technion Initiative for Human Health.
Associate Prof. Tamar Segal-Peretz: “We will be able to observe phenomena at the molecular level while preserving the natural environment of the molecules, and to examine, for example, how a drug binds to its target protein in order to carry out its therapeutic activity.”
The Technion Center for Electron Microscopy of Soft Materials, together with the Technion Human Health Initiative, has won a PBC (Planning and Budgeting Committee) tender to purchase two of the most advanced electron microscopes in the world—CRYO-TEM and CRYO-FIB.
The grant from the committee amounts to approximately NIS 17 million, and together with Technion matching funds, represents a total investment of about NIS 25 million in acquiring the systems. This achievement marks a significant milestone for the center and for the Technion as a whole, strengthening its position at the forefront of global research in electron microscopy and structural biology.
The new microscopes are expected to significantly expand the center’s research and service capabilities, enable broad scientific collaborations, and contribute to advancing breakthrough research at the Technion and within the scientific community in Israel and worldwide.
This achievement was made possible through collaboration among leading Technion researchers: Dr. Lia Engel (Faculty of Mechanical Engineering), Dr. Dvir Harris (Schulich Faculty of Chemistry), Prof. Ido Kaminer (Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering), Prof. Thomas Schultheiss (Ruth and Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine), Asst.Prof. Lucy Lieberman, and Asst. Prof. Tamar Segal-Peretz (Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering).
According to Associate. Prof. Segal-Peretz, “With the new instrumentation, Technion researchers will be able to observe various phenomena at molecular resolution while preserving the natural environment of the molecules by rapidly freezing them to temperatures of −170°C. This will make it possible, for example, to see how a drug binds to its target protein to perform its therapeutic function, or how a human cell manages to transport molecules through the nuclear envelope in order to initiate the expression of certain genes. Another example is deciphering the mechanism by which polymers organize themselves to impart desired properties for various engineering applications.”
Project leaders at the Technion, from right to left: Prof. Thomas Schultheiss, Associate Prof. Tamar Segal-Peretz, Prof. Ido Kaminer, Dr. Dvir Harris, Dr. Lia Engel, and Dr. Lucy Lieberman.
(Photo credit: Rami Shlush, Technion Spokesperson)
Credit: Technion Spokesperson
