FEI, NIH To Create ‘Living Lab’ for Biology Research

FEI has entered into a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), creating a “Living Lab Structural Biology Center” that integrates cryo-electron microscopy (EM), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and X-ray diffraction (XRD), aimed at accelerating discoveries for global health challenges such as HIV/AIDS and cancer.

The lab will be located on the NIH campus, and represents an interdisciplinary collaboration among experts from FEI and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. The research program will utilize FEI’s Titan Krios transmission electron microscope (TEM), among the world’s most powerful commercially-available electron microscopes for structural biology, and continued development of other state-of-the-art technologies to advance the scientific scope of the collaboration.

Dr. Sriram Subramaniam, senior investigator in the Laboratory of Cell Biology of the NCI, and a recognized leader in cryo-electron microscopy and related techniques, will serve as director of the Living Lab. Leading NIH scientists in various other fields, including NMR spectroscopists such as Drs. Adriaan Bax and G. Marius Clore, X-ray crystallographers such as Drs. Fred Dyda and Alex Wlodawer and biochemists such as Drs. Suresh Ambudkar and Stuart Le Grice, will also actively participate in the research program.

FEI’s president and chief executive officer, Dr. Don Kania said, “This collaborative effort with NIH is a critical part of our strategy to provide complete microscopy solutions for life science research. Our Life Sciences business has been increasing rapidly and is a key part of our overall corporate growth plan. Helping our customers obtain increased value from electron microscopy in conjunction with and complementary to XRD and NMR is a key element of that plan.”