Yifan Cheng
- Department of Cell Biology
- Harvard Medical School
- 240 Longwood Avenue
- Boston, MA 02115
- Fax (617) 432-1144
- Telephone (617) 432-4095
My work involves applying the techniques of electron tomography and electron crystallography to the study of protein structure. The laboratory studies mainly muscle proteins, one of which is the actin crosslinking protein alpha-actinin. To facilitate our structural studies, we have recently purchased a Philips CM300-FEG electron microscope and one of my jobs was to evaluate its suitability for electron tomography and protein crystallography. These methods require that the microscope perform well at low magnification. Tests of our microscope showed that 2.04Å lattice fringes from crystalline gold can be obtained at magnifications as low as 10,000X. I have also developed a computer program to record a complete tilt series of any set of angles on the CM300 and CM120 microscopes. This program is now being used at Florida State University to record tilt series of ice embedded specimens as well as plastic sections.
PUBLICATIONS
- Kenneth A. Taylor, Jinghua Tang, Yifan Cheng, Hanspeter Winkler.
The use of electron tomography for structural analysis of disordered protein
arrays. J. Struct. Biol. 120, 372-386 (1997)
- Yifan Cheng, Kenneth A. Taylor. Characterization of the low magnification performance of a Philips CM300-FEG.Ultramicroscopy 74, 209-220 (1998).