Electron Microscopy Facility

Facility manager: Dr Fabienne Beuron

The Electron Microscopy Facility is dedicated to the study of macromolecular protein complexes using single particle methods.  The facility brings together a combination of instrumentation and expertise that supports the determination of three-dimensional structures from negative stain or cryo-electron microscopy.

The state-of-the-art facility houses two FEI electron microscopes, a Tecnai T12 and a Tecnai F20. Both microscopes are cryo-capable and equipped with CCD cameras. The facility also includes the necessary ancillary equipment for making carbon support films, glow discharge of grids and frozen hydrated sample preparation and further analysis:

• Edwards 306 and Emitech 950 carbon coating units
• Vitrobot and Reichert KF80 plunging machines
• 2 Gatan cryo-holders
• Gatan 655 pumping station
• 1 optical diffractometer
• 2 Nikon film scanners
• Computer workstations

The Tecnai T12 microscope is used mostly for sample screening in negative stain, training and trial studies in cryo-EM.  The Tecnai F20 microscope, equipped with a 4kx4k camera, is dedicated to the data collection by fully trained users.