Published by the California Institute of Technology Library, this innovative open-access microbiology textbook is written by Elitza Tocheva’s supervisor Grant Jensen, Professor of Biophysics and Biology, and Research Scientist Catherine Oikonomou.

The Atlas offers offers a visual story of the microbial cell, using real 3D imaging data to showcase the complex structures that make these cells tick, and draws on the specialized expertise of the Jensen Lab at Caltech in state-of-the-art 3D cryogenic electron microscopy (cryo-EM). Over the last 15 years, this technique has allowed researchers to peer inside the tiny cells of bacteria and archaea, revealing rich and unimagined interior structures. The Atlas of Bacterial & Archaeal Cell Structure opens these structures up to readers in an interactive, multimedia textbook that uses more than 150 movies of nearly 70 different species to illustrate the architectural features that enable cells to survive and thrive.

The book is geared toward undergraduates and features researh from Dr. Elitza Tocheva's post-doctoral fellowship. The main content can be digested in several hours, making the textbook a perfect complement to a cell biology or microbiology course, providing structural context for the biochemistry or human health aspects being covered.

The Atlas of Bacterial & Archaeal Cell Structure is available for free online.