Traditionally, structural biologists approach the complexity of cellular proteomes in a reductionist manner. Proteomes are fractionated, their molecular components purified and studied one-by-one using the experimental methods for structure determination at their disposal. Visual proteomics aims at obtaining a holistic picture of cellular proteomes by studying them in situ, ideally in unperturbed cellular environments. The method that enables doing this at highest resolution is cryo-electron tomography. It allows to visualize cellular landscapes with molecular resolution generating maps or atlases revealing the interaction networks which underlie cellular functions in health and in disease states. Current implementations of cryo ET do not yet realize the full potential of the method in terms of resolution and interpretability. To this end, further improvements in technology and methodology are needed. This review describes the state of the art as well as measures which we expect will help overcoming current limitations.

传统上，结构生物学家以还原论的方式处理细胞蛋白质组的复杂性。蛋白质组被分离，它们的分子成分被纯化，并使用他们可以使用的结构测定实验方法进行一一研究。视觉蛋白质组学旨在通过原位研究获得细胞蛋白质组的整体图片，理想情况下是在不受干扰的细胞环境中。能够以最高分辨率执行此操作的方法是冷冻电子断层扫描。它允许使用分子分辨率生成地图或地图集来可视化细胞景观，揭示健康和疾病状态下细胞功能的基础相互作用网络。低温 ET 的当前实施尚未实现该方法在分辨率和可解释性方面的全部潜力。为此，需要进一步改进技术和方法。这篇评论描述了最先进的技术以及我们预计将有助于克服当前限制的措施。