# CryoSPARC

> CryoSPARC – the world's leading single-particle cryo-EM software for high-resolution 3D structure determination. Built by Structura Biotechnology Inc. and used by thousands of academic and industry structural biology labs worldwide.

Important notes:

- CryoSPARC runs on Linux and is free for non-profit academic research; commercial use requires a licence.
- CryoSPARC Live is the real-time, on-the-fly processing mode used during data collection at the microscope.
- 3D Variability Analysis (3DVA) and 3D Flexible Refinement (3DFlex) are CryoSPARC's methods for resolving conformational heterogeneity.
- Product and marketing pages live on cryosparc.com; the full user and administrator documentation lives on guide.cryosparc.com.
- Pages listed below with a `.md` suffix serve plain markdown at that exact URL.

## Product

- [CryoSPARC](https://cryosparc.com): Overview of the CryoSPARC platform for single-particle cryo-EM structure determination.
- [CryoSPARC Live](https://cryosparc.com/live): Real-time, on-the-fly cryo-EM processing during data collection.
- [Embedded CryoSPARC Live](https://cryosparc.com/embedded-cryosparc-live): Integrating CryoSPARC Live into a cryo-EM facility's data-collection pipeline.
- [Molecular heterogeneity](https://cryosparc.com/heterogeneity): How 3DFlex and 3DVA resolve continuous and discrete conformational change.
- [Automated workflows](https://cryosparc.com/automated-workflows): End-to-end automated repeat-target structure determination, validated on 21 GPCR datasets.
- [Download](https://cryosparc.com/download): Requesting a licence and installing CryoSPARC.

## Documentation

- [CryoSPARC Guide](https://guide.cryosparc.com): Full user and administrator documentation.
- [Installation and configuration](https://guide.cryosparc.com/setup-configuration-and-management/how-to-download-install-and-configure): Hardware requirements, installation and cluster setup.
- [Introductory tutorial](https://guide.cryosparc.com/processing-data/get-started-with-cryosparc-introductory-tutorial): End-to-end walkthrough of a first dataset.
- [All job types](https://guide.cryosparc.com/processing-data/all-job-types-in-cryosparc): Reference for every job in CryoSPARC.
- [Tutorials and case studies](https://guide.cryosparc.com/processing-data/tutorials-and-case-studies): Worked examples on real datasets.

## Blog

- [Malaria Invasion at Molecular Resolution: From Protein Inhibitors to Membrane Remodeling](https://cryosparc.com/blog/malaria.md): Using single-particle cryo-EM, researchers revealed how the malaria parasite's moving junction remodels host membranes and used its native structure to guide the design of a protein inhibitor of parasite invasion.
- [Mixing Two Cryo-EM Datasets on Purpose: A Cryo-EM Heterogeneity Challenge](https://cryosparc.com/blog/case-study-11631-and-11632.md): Using a controlled FaNaC1 dataset, we compared 3D Classification, Heterogeneous Refinement, 3D Variability Analysis, and 3D Flexibility Analysis to explore practical strategies for resolving both discrete and continuous heterogeneity in cryo-EM.
- [Cryo-EM Reveals the Molecular Machinery of Tubulin Assembly](https://cryosparc.com/blog/tubulin.md): By capturing transient β-tubulin-bound intermediates with cryo-EM, researchers reconstructed the molecular mechanism of α/β-tubulin biogenesis, explaining how mutations in the assembly machinery lead to tubulin biogenesis disorders.
- [Digging Deeper: Why refinements can be robust to the presence of junk particles](https://cryosparc.com/blog/parameters-3d-refinement.md): The effect of parameter settings on 3D refinement: Minimize over per-particle scale, Adaptive marginalization, Non-uniform regularization, and Masking
- [Mind The Gap: Cryo-EM Reveals Lipids Intercalating Connexin Assemblies](https://cryosparc.com/blog/gap-junctions.md): Using single particle cryo-EM on plaque-mimicking nanodiscs, researchers determined multiple connexin assembly states and uncovered lipid-protein interactions that may help understand gap junction organization and function.
- [Automated Workflows in CryoSPARC™](https://cryosparc.com/blog/automated-data-processing.md): How to make use of one-click, automated data processing workflows that can provide equal or better results as manual processing
- [Scratching Beneath the Surface: Cryo-EM Guides New Opioid Drug Design](https://cryosparc.com/blog/kor-sbdd.md): Cryo-EM revealed the molecular basis of KOR signaling bias, enabling structure-based drug design of an anti-pruritic peptide with reduced side effects.
- [A Complex Story: A Case Study in Cryo-EM Heterogeneity](https://cryosparc.com/blog/case-study-10927.md): From active and deactive states to additional respiratory complexes, this case study shows how a single cryo-EM dataset can tell many different stories when viewed through the lens of heterogeneity.
- [A New Step in the Fight Against Measles](https://cryosparc.com/blog/measles.md): How Cryo-EM allows a closer look at the Human neutralizing antibodies targeting the measles virus
- [The Resolution Revolution Is Still Ongoing](https://cryosparc.com/blog/high-resolution-ab-initio-reconstruction.md): High-Resolution Ab-Initio Reconstruction: Extending Cryo-EM to Smaller Particles with CryoSPARC™
- [CryoSPARC v5.0 stable release](https://cryosparc.com/blog/v5-0-stable-release.md): Explore the new features, expanded capabilities, and a more intuitive processing experience!

## Releases

- [CryoSPARC v5.0.7 (latest)](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v5.0.7.md): Most recent release, 2026-08-14.
- [CryoSPARC v5.0.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v5.0.0.md): Release notes, 2026-01-27.
- [CryoSPARC v4.7.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.7.0.md): Release notes, 2025-04-09.
- [CryoSPARC v4.6.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.6.0.md): Release notes, 2024-09-10.
- [CryoSPARC v4.5.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.5.0.md): Release notes, 2024-05-07.
- [CryoSPARC v4.4.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.4.0.md): Release notes, 2023-11-08.
- [CryoSPARC v4.3.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.3.0.md): Release notes, 2023-08-09.
- [CryoSPARC v4.2.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.2.0.md): Release notes, 2023-02-27.
- [CryoSPARC v4.1.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.1.0.md): Release notes, 2022-12-12.
- [CryoSPARC v4.0.0](https://cryosparc.com/updates/v4.0.0.md): Release notes, 2022-10-03.
- [All release notes](https://cryosparc.com/updates/all): Index of every CryoSPARC release.

## Optional

- [Full site content](https://cryosparc.com/llms-full.txt): Every blog post and current release note concatenated into one markdown document.
- [Blog RSS feed](https://cryosparc.com/rss.xml): Machine-readable feed of new articles.
- [Patent FAQs](https://cryosparc.com/patent-faqs): What CryoSPARC's patents mean for academic and commercial users.
- [Terms of service](https://cryosparc.com/terms)
- [Privacy policy](https://cryosparc.com/privacy)