Non-destructive Imaging of Individual Bio-Molecules

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first direct experimental evidence of non-destructive imaging of individual DNA molecules using low energy electron radiation, overcoming the longstanding challenge of radiation damage in molecular imaging.

Contribution

It provides experimental proof that individual DNA molecules can withstand coherent low energy electron radiation without damage, enabling non-destructive imaging.

Findings

DNA withstands high doses of low energy electron radiation

Imaging of individual molecules is possible without averaging

Radiation damage is not an insurmountable obstacle for low energy electron imaging

Abstract

Radiation damage is considered to be the major problem that still prevents imaging an individual biological molecule for structural analysis. So far, all known mapping techniques using sufficient short wave-length radiation, be it X-rays or high energy electrons, circumvent this problem by averaging over many molecules. Averaging, however, leaves conformational details uncovered. Even the anticipated use of ultra-short but extremely bright X-ray bursts of a Free Electron Laser shall afford averaging over 10^6 molecules to arrive at atomic resolution. Here we present direct experimental evidence for non-destructive imaging of individual DNA molecules. In fact, we show that DNA withstands coherent low energy electron radiation with deBroglie wavelength in the Angstrom regime despite a vast dose of 10^8 electrons/nm^2 accumulated over more than one hour.