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Figure 1
Microcrystals powering modern structure determination: from X-rays to electrons. Traditional macromolecular crystallography (MX) compared with serial crystallography at X-ray free-electron lasers (XFELs) and synchrotrons, and MicroED using a transmission electron microscope. Traditional MX relies on single, cryo-cooled crystals of ~20–500 µm diameter, typically rotated through ~180° with exposures of 0.1–1°. In contrast, serial crystallography uses thousands of microcrystals (typically 0.2–50 µm), delivered at room temperature in random orientations, with each crystal exposed only once to a focused X-ray pulse. MicroED involves electron diffraction from cryo-cooled nanocrystals (typically 0.05–0.5 µm) mounted on a tilted EM grid, typically collecting ±10° of data per crystal. (Image created with BioRender, https://www.biorender.com.)

IUCrJ
Volume 12| Part 3| May 2025| Pages 259-261
ISSN: 2052-2525
https://doi.org/10.1107/S2052252525003653