See the Hidden: Advancing Cryo Workflows for Cellular Discovery

Evgenia Zagoriy is an expert in cryo-FIB preparation of vitrified biological specimens, in situ cryo-electron tomography, and cryo-CLEM. She has been part of Julia Mahamid’s group at EMBL Heidelberg since 2017. Previously, during her PhD and postdoc at Max Planck Institutes, she studied chromosome biology and cell division. She holds a Master’s in Biochemistry from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

Manon is a structural biologist studying carbon fixation in algae using cryo-electron tomography. Her work combines mechanistic studies with environmental sampling workflows that extend cryo-ET to natural ecosystems. She completed her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Biozentrum, University of Basel.

Sofie is a biologist and PhD student in the Cell Architecture group at the Biozentrum, University Basel. She studied at Utrecht University (NL) where she acquired a background in molecular and cellular biology. Her research centers around cyanobacteria and algae, she uses correlative light and electron microscopy to understand their photosynthesis from an ultrastructural perspective.

Johannes (Jan) Groen studied Biotechnology at Wageningen University (NL), where he developed a passion for microscopy. His PhD at the Mistral Beamline (Alba Synchrotron, Spain) focused on correlative light and X-ray microscopy to study therapeutic protein–nanomaterial interactions. As a postdoc at Institut Pasteur, he advanced cryo-CLEM workflows to study early SARS-CoV-2 infection. Now, at Synchrotron Soleil, he develops multimodal imaging workflows for complex biological samples.

Vanessa Augustin studied Molecular Cell Biology and Neurobiology at the Department of Animal Physiology in Kaiserslautern, later focusing on Human Biology and Human Genetics. Her research explored neuronal development, and the intracellular signaling pathways of the amyloid precursor protein, which is implicated in Alzheimer’s disease.

Andreia Pinto began her career as a Biomedical Scientist in Histocellular Pathology before focusing on Electron Microscopy. She spent over a decade managing an EM facility at a research institute in Lisbon, supporting projects from fundamental to translational research. After joining the Royal Brompton Hospital in 2019, she trained a deep learning platform (GETi) to detect ciliary defects in EM images for PCD diagnosis and led studies on SARS-CoV-2 infection of the respiratory airway. Now based at EMBL Heidelberg, she works with Leica Microsystems as a Workflow Application Specialist in sample preparation for electron and cryo-electron microscopy.