THE country’s largest cryo-electron microscopy center was inaugurated at the Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech) on Monday morning. The center’s research capability is expected to rank among the top 5 percent of institutions around the world, sznews.com reported.

The SUSTech Cryo-Electron Microscopy Center is a key project in the basic sciences for the city under the municipal government’s funding and the university’s construction. The purpose of building the center is to support Shenzhen, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and even South China, in terms of research on biomedicine, precision medicine and new energy.

Cai Yu, deputy director of Shenzhen’s development and reform commission, pointed out that the center has filled a gap for the entire South China area in multiple fields of basic science.

The lab is going to install six 300 kilovolt cryo-electron microscopy machines along with other facilitating equipment. So far, the first two machines have already been installed and put into use. The center will be the most advanced cryo-electron microscopy lab in China, according to the report.

The center is attracting renowned experts in the field. Professor Wang Peiyi from the university said the lab has already invited Sui Senfang, an academician in cryo-electron microscopy, to be the center’s consultant and more experts are expected to join the lab.

Richard Henderson, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, attended the inauguration ceremony Monday. He said there are around 100 similar research institutions in the world and that the center at SUSTech will be one of the three major cryo-electron microscopy centers.

The other two major centers are located in the United States and the U.K. The SUSTech center will greatly influence research in related fields, said the Nobel laureate. (Zhang Qian)