Biography
Alex de Marco, Ph.D., is the Director of Electron Microscopy at the New York Structural Biology Center, where he also directs two NIH-funded national resources: the National Center for CryoEM Access and Training (NCCAT) and the National Center for In-situ Tomographic Ultramicroscopy (NCITU). In these roles, he guides the strategic direction of one of the world's leading cryo-electron microscopy facilities and supports a broad national community of academic and institutional researchers.
His research sits at the intersection of biophysics, instrumentation, and computation, with a focus on advancing in situ cryo-EM and developing new methods to observe macromolecular machines in their native cellular environments. His group builds integrated hardware and software that bridge light microscopy and high-resolution electron tomography, with an emphasis on open-access tools.
Before joining NYSBC, Alex was an Associate Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at Monash University (2015–2023), and before that led product development in industry at FEI Company. He earned his Ph.D. at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) and Heidelberg University under the supervision of John Briggs.
Publications
Overcoming air–water interface-induced artifacts in cryo-EM with protein nanocrates
Nature Methods, Vol. 23, Issue 9, Pages 1798-1804
Simultaneous single-cell profiling of the transcriptome and proteome
Eg5 activity and density-driven bundling organize the human metaphase mitotic spindle independently of spindle bipolarity
Continuum architecture dynamics of vesicle tethering in exocytosis
Cell, Vol. 189, Issue 4, Pages 1170-1184.e22
Overcoming air-water interface-induced artifacts in Cryo-EM with protein nanocrates
Overcoming air-water interface-induced artifacts in Cryo-EM with protein nanocrates
Dynamic PRC1–CBX8 stabilizes a porous structure of chromatin condensates
Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, Vol. 32, Issue 3, Pages 520-530
Endoplasmic reticulum–plasma membrane contact gradients direct cell migration
Nature, Vol. 631, Issue 8020, Pages 415-423
Square beams for optimal tiling in transmission electron microscopy
Nature Methods, Vol. 21, Issue 4, Pages 562-565
CryoCycle your grids: Plunge vitrifying and reusing clipped grids to advance cryoEM democratization
bioRxiv
Square beams for optimal tiling in TEM
Square beams for optimal tiling in TEM
Square beams for optimal tiling in TEM
Research Square
Automation in Cryo-FIB Preparation, from Cellular to Tissue Structural Biology
Microscopy and microanalysis : the official journal of Microscopy Society of America, Microbeam Analysis Society, Microscopical Society of Canada, Vol. 29, Issue Supplement_1, Pages 1956-1956
The National Center for CryoEM Access and Training - Establishing a Cross-Facility-Honored Training Curriculum
Microscopy and microanalysis : the official journal of Microscopy Society of America, Microbeam Analysis Society, Microscopical Society of Canada, Vol. 29, Issue Supplement_1, Pages 1042-1043
Assessing the Quality of Oxygen Plasma Focused Ion Beam (O-PFIB) Etching on Polypropylene Surfaces Using Secondary Electron Hyperspectral Imaging
Polymers, Vol. 15, Issue 15, Pages 3247
OpenFIBSEM: A universal API for FIBSEM control
Journal of Structural Biology, Vol. 215, Issue 3, Pages 107967
Dynamic PRC1-CBX8 stabilizes a porous structure of chromatin condensates
bioRxiv