Protein Tomography™ offers insights into protein structure and function in a cellular context. In turn, this enables an increased understanding of the biology and mechanisms underlying diseases at the molecular level. The technology provides unique information that bridges the gap between other complementary imaging methods.
Light microscopy techniques can also provide images of cellular events. However, these techniques do not show structure and function at a protein level. NMR, x-ray and single particle EM provide high-resolution structural information but the proteins are studied in an artificial environment. In addition, the protein image is created by averaging thousands or millions of objects. As a result, the latter methods are unable to give information about the flexibility and shape of individual proteins (or protein complexes) in situ.