@article{22365,
  abstract     = {Phase plates can, in principle, overcome the poor image contrast in cryo–electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and the resulting limits on the structural reconstruction of small proteins. However, previous designs have been unstable and compromised the high-resolution signal and have thus been unable to surpass results achieved by standard cryo-EM. Here, we show that the laser phase plate (LPP), installed in a modern, custom Titan Krios microscope, enhances the resolution in single-particle reconstruction of small proteins by improving specimen-motion correction and recovery of information from the early frames, as well as particle visualization, three-dimensional classification, and alignment. These advances use standard defocus ranges and reconstruction procedures but open the door to LPP-tailored protocols, offering further improvements by leveraging the LPP demonstrated here.},
  author       = {Petrov, Petar N and Zhang, Jessie T. and Remis, Jonathan and Axelrod, Jeremy J. and Cheng, Hang and Cooper, Eric S. and Hicklin, Ian K. and Sandhaus, Shahar and Schnurr, Cooper and Glaeser, Robert M. and Müller, Holger},
  issn         = {1095-9203},
  journal      = {Science},
  number       = {6807},
  pages        = {195--196},
  publisher    = {AAAS},
  title        = {{Laser phase plate improves structure determination of small proteins by cryo-EM}},
  doi          = {10.1126/science.aeh0665},
  volume       = {393},
  year         = {2026},
}