We are EMBL: Romain Linares on the infinitely small and the infinitely large
Romain Linares talks about his role in managing the cryo-electron microscopy facility at EMBL Grenoble, how he sees this technique evolving in the coming years, and his passion for astronomy
Romain Linares, cryo-electron microscopy expert at EMBL Grenoble. Credit: Jeremy Sinoir/EMBL
Structural biologists at EMBL Grenoble focus on elucidating the three-dimensional structure of molecules such as proteins or enzymes – the building blocks of life. To carry out their experiments, they rely on powerful tools such as synchrotrons or cryo-electron microscopes (cryo-EM), which can explore these molecules at the atomic level.
Romain Linares, a cryo-EM expert at EMBL Grenoble, is in charge of managing the cryo-EM facility and providing support and training to researchers in the use of this technique. He’s also involved in EMBL’s Staff Association, as its vice-chair in Grenoble. In this interview, he tells us more about how he explores both the infinitely small, which he focuses on at work, and the infinitely large, which he observes through his passion for astronomy.
Can you explain your work in a few sentences?
I manage EMBL Grenoble’s cryo-electron microscopy facility with Iskander Khusainov, a cryo-EM specialist. This involves various activities, such as maintaining the microscopes and other types of equipment, training and supporting internal users, keeping the cryo-EM platform up to date with new tools and developments, and participating in the organisation of workshops.
I am also involved in the operation of the CM01 Titan Krios cryo-EM microscope based at the European Radiation Synchrotron Facility (ESRF) – which is part of the Partnership for Structural Biology’s shared services on the European Photon and Neutron (EPN) Science Campus. I am one of the local contacts for this facility, together with beamline scientists from the ESRF and the Institut de Biologie Structurale (IBS). This microscope is managed like a regular ESRF beamline: researchers can request microscope time through a BAG proposal, for example, and send their grids which we collect for them. The users can be from the PSB or other institutes.
What do you think is the best part of your work?
I enjoy interacting with people and being involved in many interesting cryo-EM projects. This is quite different from my previous experience as a postdoctoral fellow where I was mainly focused on my own project. It is super rewarding to help and support EM users here.
Also, EMBL and the EPN campus form a unique environment that provides access not only to state-of-the-art equipment and tools in cryo-EM, but also to all fields of structural biology, which is very stimulating. In this new role, I also appreciate being responsible for a variety of activities, from training to maintenance. The days are not boring!
How do you see your work evolving over the next few years?
The ‘resolution revolution’ of cryo-EM has opened up many possibilities for structural biology, but the technique is still relatively low throughput, far from the high-throughput automation of, for example, X-ray crystallography. Several exciting projects are currently underway at EMBL Grenoble.
One is the automation of processes, which until now are mostly done manually. This is a critical step, as throughput and reproducibility are key for cryo-EM nowadays. I’ve been involved in the EasyGrid project, a prototype that engineers and scientists from EMBL Grenoble have developed for the automation of grid preparation. As in many other scientific fields, software and AI developments are evolving at an incredible pace and are now prevalent in electron microscopy. These will allow us to speed up and automate multiple steps of the workflows, like grid quality assessment, data collection, or image processing.
In addition to that, we are moving towards cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), an electron microscopy technique that is becoming much more important in structural biology. It is very challenging in terms of sample preparation, data collection, and image processing, and it is much less streamlined than single-particle cryo-EM. My colleague Iskander has been recruited to bring his expertise in cryo-ET, implement the technique in-house, and provide this service to our users. It will be very interesting to look at proteins inside the cell, and a critical added value for the site!
At what age did you decide you wanted to be a scientist, and what triggered that?
I didn’t grow up in a family of scientists, but as a child, I always enjoyed reading books about different scientific topics, such as dinosaurs, volcanoes, space, and biology. I particularly remember a children’s encyclopedia that was mostly about science. I spent a lot of time browsing through it!
Now that we’re talking about it, another memory comes to mind. My mother used to save articles from newspapers or magazines that she found interesting. She kept them in books and we ended up with a lot of information about scientific topics, which was very handy when we had to do our homework (because we didn’t have the internet back then!). She always had easy access to information and that probably also influenced my interest in science.
What do you do in your spare time?
I’ve been enjoying parenthood for a year now, which is probably my main hobby at the moment! Apart from that, I have way too many hobbies, like playing music (guitar and drums, in a small band with IBS people) or exploring the world of science fiction through books and films.
I’m also really passionate about astronomy. I’ve always been interested in stars and space in general. I still remember vividly the 1999 solar eclipse in Northern France when I was 11 years old. It was an unforgettable moment that I would love to witness again (there is one that will be visible in Spain in 2026!).
Moving to Grenoble’s dark skies and Alps mountains 7 years ago, I decided to buy a telescope and have piled up numerous ones ever since. I also do astrophotography or what we call ‘electronically-assisted astronomy’, which allows you to use a camera and a telescope to see what you couldn’t see with your eyes. A few months ago I organised a stargazing trip for my colleagues and about 10 people came. It was a really enjoyable experience, I’ll definitely organise another one soon!
The Andromeda Galaxy, together with its two satellite galaxies M32 (little spot left to Andromeda galactic nucleus) and M110 (bottom right). The picture was taken in the Vercors mountains, south of Grenoble. Credit: Romain Linares/EMBL
Cryo-electron microscopy on the European Photon and Neutron (EPN) Science Campus in Grenoble
Four institutes of the Partnership for Structural Biology (EMBL, ESRF, IBS, and ILL) have worked closely together to develop cryo-electron microscopy services on the EPN campus. Currently, the campus hosts seven electron microscopes, including four high-end instruments.
EMBL Grenoble’s electron microscopy (EM) facility was established in 2016 and became fully operational in 2019 with the addition of a Glacios cryo-electron microscope. This complements the EM facility at the neighbouring institute, IBS, which provides access to another Glacios and two smaller microscopes.
The first Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope became operational in 2017 as part of the PSB scientific services. More recently, a new Titan Krios microscope, funded by the ESRF and the IBS, has been installed at the ESRF. It will benefit external and PSB users and will be optimised for cryo-electron tomography.
EMBL Grenoble, ESRF, and the IBS have also launched the Grenoble Cryo-EM Club in 2024, following the success of three other Grenoble Clubs (on epigenetics, host-pathogens interactions, and drug design). The first meetings were very well attended, and the most recent meeting was organised in November to mark the inauguration of the new microscope.
