West/Midwest Consortium

The goal of the West/Midwest Consortium for High-Resolution Cryo Electron Microscopy (cryoEM) is to offer our consortium users free access to an existing core facility at UCLA

WMC Project Description

To start a new project using the Titan Krios, the PI of the lab should submit a 1-page project description to the WMC user coordinator. 

  • This project description will be submitted to the WMC supervisory committee to evaluate the project’s suitability and need for the Titan Krios.
  • A new project description MUST be submitted for each new project. 
  • Project descriptions should include cryoEM images obtained locally and 2D class averages of those images
  • An example project description can be found here.

The project description serves two purposes. First, a supervisory committee will evaluate this description for suitability and need for the high-end Titan Krios instrument. Second, UCLA’s annual report of the consortium grant to NIH will be based on descriptions of approved projects. For this reason, a new project description must be submitted for each new project. 

Supporting images obtained from users’ local low-end cryo electron microscopes must be included in the submitted project description. These images must demonstrate that the concentrated samples are isolated, purified, and meet the minimal sample criterion for reaching near-atomic resolution. Example images and 2D-class averages are provided below.