Instruct-ERIC Events

I2PC – Instruct Course on Electron Tomography and Subtomogram Averaging

Training

Date: 09-Dec-2025 to 12-Dec-2025

Instruct

Instruct Partner

Cryo-electron tomography (cryoET) is a cutting-edge imaging technique that enables to visualize the three-dimensional structures of biological macromolecules and cellular organelles at nanometer resolution. With this 3D data, scientists can accurately locate macromolecules of interest in the cell and study them in their native state. Subtomogram averaging (STA) is a crucial method in this field, facilitating the extraction of high-resolution structural information from the identified proteins within the tomogram (3D representation of the sample). This course offers participants the theoretical knowledge and the practical skill to undertake cryoET and STA projects.

Participants will gain practical, hands-on experience with essential tasks such as tilt-series alignment, 3D tomogram reconstruction, particle identification, subtomogram averaging, and tomogram segmentation.

Over the course of four days, attendees will be introduced to both theoretical concepts and practical applications, allowing them to develop a deep understanding of the workflow from the raw data to detailed 3D visualization.

Find out more and register for the course here.

 

Tutors
Jose Luis Vilas

 

Registration Fee

• Academic Registration Fee Instruct countries: Predocs & Postdosc 50€
• Academic Registration Fee Instruct countries: Others 100€
• Academic Registration Fee Non Instruct countries: Predocs & Postdosc 100€
• Academic Registration Fee Non Instruct countries: Others 150€
• Industrial Registration Fee 300€

 

Course Contents

Day 1: From movies to tomograms

Course introduction and fundamentals of cryoET image processing
Movie alignment
Tilt Series alignment: fiducial and fiducialless approaches
3D Reconstruction
CTF estimation and correction

 

Day 2: Particle Picking methods

Particle identification: different strategies, particle filtering according to their orientation in the tomogram
Particle picking of non oriented particles in the tomogram

 

Day 3: Subtomogram Averaging techniques

Initial model generation
Map refinement
Post-processing and quality Analysis

 

Day 4: Tomogram segmentation

Tomogram data analysis and representation
Segmentation tools
Discussion with the audience and short talks of the students work

 

The Instruct Image Processing Centre (I2PC) is part of Instruct-ES. Find out more about the facility and apply to access here.