Astbury Biostructure Laboratory (ABSL)

State-of-the-art equipment for transmission electron microscopy

The Astbury Biostructure Laboratory (ABSL) is the electron microscopy facility within the Faculty of Biological Sciences, University of Leeds. We operate state-of-the-art equipment for transmission electron microscopy, with two world leading ThermoFisher Scientific Titan Krios electron microscopes equipped with direct electron detectors. The facility offers sample preparation equipment and staff expertise to support users in preparing and imaging a wide range of biological specimens, from macromolecular complexes to cells, tissues and organisms. They also work with non-biological specimens.

ABSL specialise in structural biology, particularly generating high-resolution structural information for macromolecular complexes. Typical specimens for this analysis include nucleo-protein complexes, membrane proteins, ligand bound proteins for drug discovery and viruses, with analysis often resulting in sub 3 Å density maps. The facility is equipped to operate at biosafety level 2.

The equipment and expertise of staff in ABSL are available to industrial users as well as researchers at the University and academics across the world.

ABSL are a member of our CRO Network, part of our Virtual R&D offering. You can find out more about them on their website.