Interactive Panel Discussion: Scaling Cryo-EM Throughput to Deliver More High-Quality Structures by Tackling Access, Sample Preparation, Data Processing & Automation Challenges
11:00 am - Thursday 4th February 2027
As cryo-EM becomes increasingly important for structure-based drug discovery, the field is facing a fundamental throughput challenge. Long data collection times, limited microscope access, difficult sample preparation, computationally intensive analysis, and manual structure building can restrict the number of structures that can be delivered to discovery teams. Join structural biology leaders, cryo-EM specialists, and technology developers as they discuss how to scale cryo-EM workflows to meet the growing demands of modern drug discovery by:
- Overcoming access and throughput limitations, examining how companies are managing constrained microscope capacity, external facilities, CRO access, and the need to generate sufficient structures to support increasingly large discovery pipelines
- Improving sample preparation and data quality, discussing how grid development, alternative sample preparation approaches, additives, and better understanding of sample-specific behaviour can reduce failed experiments and increase the probability of obtaining high-quality structures
- Automating the cryo-EM workflow, exploring how advances in instrumentation, AI-enabled data processing, automated structure building, and improved computational infrastructure can reduce manual intervention and increase the number of actionable structures delivered to drug discovery teams
