Work

Two datasets are better than one: method of double moments for 3D reconstruction in cryo-EM

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Cryo-electron microscopy is a powerful imaging technique for reconstructing three-dimensional molecular structures from noisy tomographic projection images of randomly oriented particles. We introduce a new data fusion framework, termed the method of double moments, which reconstructs molecular structures from two instances of the second-order moment of projection images obtained under distinct orientation distributions: one uniform, the other non-uniform and unknown. We prove that these moments generically uniquely determine the underlying structure, up to a global rotation and reflection, and we develop a convex-relaxation-based algorithm that achieves accurate recovery using only second-order statistics. Our results demonstrate the advantage of collecting and modeling multiple datasets under different experimental conditions, illustrating that leveraging dataset diversity can substantially enhance reconstruction quality in computational imaging tasks.

Source: Inverse Problems

DOI: 10.1088/1361-6420/ae7fb2

Authors: Joe Kileel, Oscar Mickelin, Amit Singer, Sheng Xu

Institutions: The University of Texas at Austin, Tsinghua University, Princeton University

Language: English

Topic: Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques and Applications

Subfield: Structural Biology

Field: Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,325