General Access

Purpose

The Pacific Northwest Cryo-EM Center (PNCC) will provide users remote and on-site access to state-of-the-art cryo-EM resources and expertise to carry research projects utilizing cryo-EM technologies (single particle or tomography). This access mechanism provides high flexibility for the laboratory's unique journey. All submissions are externally peer-reviewed. Users awarded this mechanism may receive initial allocations up to  120 hours of microscope time, based on the project scope and external peer reviewed, and awards are limited to the participants listed. Allocation may be renewed for up to 20 days per year, through internal review of the project’s progress. Additional users and samples within the scientific scope of the awarded project may be requested during internal review. Awards are active for up to two years.

General access mechanisms contain optional components: training that covers all aspects of the cryo-EM workflow (see workshops) and high-performance computing resources for data processing (see PNCC Compute).

Goal

This mechanism is to provides multiple levels of expert service (grid screening, high resolution data collection, and image pre-processing) and independent access (sample and grid optimization, real-time data quality assessment, and data processing). Our group workshops introduce new users to cryo-EM methodologies using both remote and onsite training mechanisms, with the goal of training users to independence.

We hope that by providing access and assistance to these state-of-the-art resources, PNCC will enable discovery for the cryo-EM community and help train the next generation of cryo-EM specialists.

Application Requirements

  • Title
  • Abstract
  • Aims & Impact
  • Feasibility & Data
  • Proposed Experiments
  • Goals & Expectations
  • Figures/Preliminary Data
  • Contact Principle Investigator (PI)  
  • PI Funding Source (NIH preferred)
  • PI's current NIH Biosketch
  • Sample information

All Participants are required to have a PNCC User Account, abide by our User Agreement, and Scheduling Policies.

View our step-by-step submission guide.