Biology · Experimental Maps

Cryo-EM Map Archive: Cumulative

The resolution revolution, counted: 8 released map entries in 2002, 52,921 by the end of 2025.

• 8 → 52,921 active released entries
• 640 → 11,657 annual releases, 2015–2025
• The bend is in the annual flow, after 2015
• Active archive reconstructed, not lifetime total

The Electron Microscopy Data Bank archives what cryo-electron microscopy can see: three-dimensional density maps of molecular machines, reconstructed from images of thousands of individual copies flash-frozen in vitreous ice. Its active archive grew from 8 released entries in 2002 to 52,921 by the end of 2025. The bend shows up first in the annual flow: 640 entries released in 2015 became 11,657 in 2025, an 18.2× expansion in ten years, after direct electron detectors and better reconstruction software set off the “resolution revolution” recognised by the 2017 Chemistry Nobel. That advance opened up the large, flexible complexes that would not crystallise.

Set it beside AlphaFold and the two scales carry the point: roughly 53,000 hard-won experimental maps against 241 million predicted structures. They are not the same object, one being measured and the other inferred, and predictions are only ever as good as the experiments available to check them against.

These are cumulative active released entries by release year, counted in entries rather than “cryo-EM structures”, and the archive is not append-only: obsoleted entries revise earlier years downward. Partial 2026 is excluded from the chart; the archive stood at 60,895 entries on 12 August 2026.

Source: EMDB at EMBL-EBI

Download the data: emdb_entries.csv · emdb_entries.json

All curves · The chart is drawn in your browser and needs JavaScript. Every number it plots is in the table above.