About the Visualization Center
The center was founded in 1972 as the Laboratory of Structural Biology by Dr. Susan Lowey, Dr. Carolyn Cohen and Dr. Don Caspar (who coined the term ‘structural biology’), joined shortly by Dr. David DeRosier. Other faculty members over the years include Dr. Hugh Huxley, Dr. Niko Grigorieff, and Dr. Daniela Nicastro (a fuller version of the history of the facility is available).
Available Equipment
Microscopes
Tecnai F30 TEM with field emission gun (FEG) electron source and CompuStage, equipped with a FEI Falcon II direct electron detector, as well as a Gatan Imaging energy filter (GIF) equipped with Ultrascan 2kx2k post-filter GIF camera
Tecnai F20 TEM with a FEG and Compustage, equipped with a Gatan Oneview CMOS camera
Both Tecnais can be controlled via SerialEM software for tomographic and single particle data acquisition and have ambient and cryo sample holders
FEI Morgagni, operated at 80kV, with an AMT Nanosprint5 camera; used for screening grids of negative stain single particle and plastic sections
Sample Prep
- Two plunge freezers: an FEI vitrobot and Gatan CP3
- An Edwards Carbon Evaporator
- Two glow discharge units
- Rotary shadow
- Freeze fracture
- Leica HPM100 High pressure Freezer
- Leica AFS2 Automated Freeze Substitution machine
- Leica UC6 ultramicrotome
Services and Techniques
Our expertise includes:
Sample Preparation: Negative staining; Chemical fixation; Plunge freezing; High pressure freezing/Freeze substitution; Resin embedding; Ultramicrotomy and serial sectioning; Immuno-Electron Microscopy
TEM Imaging: 2D TEM Imaging; TEM Tomographic Imaging; Single particle cryo and negative stain-EM imaging
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