Info
RELION is the dominant open-source software for cryo-EM single-particle structure determination. Developed by Sjors Scheres’s group at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (MRC-LMB), Cambridge, UK. Licensed under GPLv2. Current version: RELION-5. Nature named Scheres one of “ten people who mattered” in 2014 for this work.
Open source vs. commercial tension
The RELION page explicitly expresses concern about “a trend towards closed-source programs and other forms of protection related to commercialisation in the field” — a clear reference to cryoSPARC. This is a live power dynamic in the landscape.
People
| Name | Role | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| Sjors Scheres | PI / Lead developer; Joint Head, Division of Structural Studies; FRS | MRC-LMB Cambridge |
| Dari Kimanius | Key developer (data-driven regularization) | MRC-LMB |
| Jasenko Zivanov | Key developer (RELION-3, CTF refinement) | MRC-LMB |
| Takanori Nakane | Key contributor (RELION-3) | MRC-LMB (historical) |
| Alister Burt | Developer (tomography pipeline) | MRC-LMB |
| Kiarash Jamali | Developer (ModelAngelo, auto model building) | MRC-LMB |
GPU acceleration collaborators
| Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|
| Erik Lindahl | Stockholm University / KTH / SciLifeLab |
| Bjorn Forsberg | Stockholm University (historical) |
Funding
- MRC (UK Medical Research Council) — primary funder
- Open-source, GPLv2
Key Relationships
- Sjors Scheres sits on the wwPDB Advisory Committee representing EMDB
- Tight integration with CCP-EM pipeliner (CCP-EM team implemented python pipeliner mimicking RELION’s)
- Competes directly with cryoSPARC
- Output maps deposited in EMDB; models in RCSB PDB / PDBe
- GPU acceleration collaboration with SciLifeLab Stockholm
Key Reference
Scheres (2012) J. Struc. Biol. 180: 519-530 Kimanius et al. (2024) Nature Methods 21, 1216-1221