The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of available macromolecular structures visualised at atomic resolution. In large part, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) has been the main technique delivering atomic structures of a diverse range of molecules. In parallel, machine learning algorithms such as Alphafold2 are more successfully predicting protein structures from their amino acid sequences. These developments have yielded an unprecedented databank of experimentally determined and predicted protein structures. This “structureome” could be a reference for the broader biological community, analogous to the genome. However, for this to become a reality, methods that can use structureomic data to understand how molecules work together to realise the plethora of biological processes inside cells, tissues and organisms are needed.

The Lucas Lab develops new approaches to leverage the growing compendium of atomic-resolution structures and atomistic models to investigate the molecular details of life using cryo-EM.