A stunning new microscope will enhance Australia’s research capabilities, experts say.

A unique $5 million microscope has been unveiled this week.

Monash University’s new FEI Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope stands three metres tall and weighs around a tonne.

The giant of a machine fires a powerful 300kV electron gun, and will sit as the centrepiece of the $20 million Clive and Vera Ramaciotti Centre for Structural Cryo Electron Microscopy part of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging.

ARC Centre Director Professor James Whisstock says the microscope will boost Australia’s research efforts for better treatment of diseases from cancer and malaria to diabetes, rheumatism and multiple sclerosis.

“The key to understanding and treating these diseases lies in understanding how proteins and cells interact at the molecular level,” Professor Whisstock said.

“The Titan Krios fills a crucial gap, seeing things that X-ray crystallography and the Synchrotron can’t see. Australian scientists have been queuing up to get time on Titans in Europe and America. Now they can do the job in Australia.”

One of only just a few in the world, the Titan Krios cryo-electron microscope works by firing a stream of high-energy electrons through a thin sample frozen in a pool of liquid ethane at minus-200°C.

Some of the electrons in the beam are deflected or absorbed by the molecules in the sample when they pass through it, and these deflected rays can be used to create a two-dimensional image of the sample.

Multiple two-dimensional images obtained by passing the electron beam through many hundreds of samples can then be automatically pieced together to determine the three-dimensional shapes.

The electron beam can magnify subjects several billion times.

It allows researchers an easy, 3D view of the very tiniest parts of the body, bringing the molecular scale into macro view.

“This microscope is powerful enough to resolve these intricate 3D shapes, identifying the position of individual atoms within a biological molecule and creating exquisitely detailed models including the molecules’ loops and side chains,” Professor Whisstock said.

“We want to transform our understanding of the human immune system and position Australia at the leading edge of that field - this microscope will enable us to do that.

“Learning more about the immune system, and thus our health, is ultimately driven by the interactions of these large biological molecules.”