Faculty and students at the University of Texas at El Paso will be using one of the world’s most powerful microscopes – the cryo-electron microscope – to aid in structural biochemistry research with possible cancer-treatment applications. The $1.8 million instrument, funded in large part by a National Science Foundation Grant – is housed in the new Chemistry and Computer Science Building on the UTEP campus. It will allow investigators to view things at nearly an atomic level.

“We’re in a unique position to have this high-end microscope,” said Ricardo Bernal, Ph.D, assistant professor of chemistry at UTEP and chief investigator for the NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant. “We anticipate having users from all over the country collaborating with us and visiting the facility.”

The state-of-the-art instrument comes as the University is establishing a structural biochemistry research core. This is part of a larger movement by UTEP to achieve Tier One status by expanding research capabilities on campus.

UTEP is investing not only in the instrument; but, in expert faculty such as Dr. Ricardo Bernal, said Stephen Aley, Ph.D., associate dean of the College of Science at UTEP.

Currently Bernal is pursing research on chaperonins – proteins found in the cytoplasm of cells which are responsible for refolding other proteins to make them functional again. Bernal’s research has focused on chaperonins as found in bacteria and viruses. The massive cryo-electron microscope will allow Bernal shift his research to human chaperonins that have been implicated in the survival of cancer cells.

“Cancer cells are not the healthiest cells. So as they continue to divide rapidly, they’re a mess,” Bernal said. “The chaperonin function is to help cancer cells survive by refolding their hastily synthesized proteins. Without a functional chaperonin, a cancer cell would die.”

Using the cryo-electron microscope, Bernal can create three-dimensional images of the chaperonin to aid in his research.  

The 300-kilovolt microscope – purchased through JEOL, a Japanese corporation – uses a concentrated electron beam to penetrate unstained biological samples in order to produce low-contrast two-dimensional images.

The microscope is unique in that its very bulky and expensive components create an extremely high vacuum. This vacuum allows for emission of electrons from what is called a field emission gun (FEG). The electron beam produced by an FEG is superior in that it is very intense and coherent, which in turn produces images of a higher quality.

“Having this sophisticated instrument at UTEP will not only stimulate underrepresented minorities to pursue careers in science, but it will provide UTEP students with the training that will make them highly competitive at an international level,” Bernal said.