The Cellular and Supramolecular Structure and Function (CSSF) Section of LCIMB is located in Building 13, Room 3E63, 3E73 and 3E74.
Our laboratory has facilities for preparing tissues, cells, and isolated macromolecular assemblies for electron microscopy, both in the CSSF Section and in the neighboring NIH-wide Electron Microscopy Shared Resource. Preparative equipment includes a Baltec HPM10 high-pressure freezing machine, Leica UCT/FCS cryo-ultramicrotome, Leica EM UC6 ultramicrotome, Leica EM/AFS2 freeze-substitution system, EMS and Leica carbon evaporators.
Our laboratory has a dedicated TEM - FEI Tecnai TF30 operated at an accelerating voltage of 300 kV and equipped with a field-emission source. This instrument is also equipped with a Gatan Quantum imaging filter, a 2k x 2k pixel Gatan Ultrascan cooled CCD camera, a Fischione HAADF detector, Gatan BF detector, Fischione dual-axis tomography holder, Gatan cryo-transfer tomography holder. The TEM is also equipped with FEI and Gatan software packages for performing electron tomography, hyperspectral imaging, electron energy loss spectroscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscopy.
Our laboratory also has a Focused Ion Beam SEM (Zeiss Crossbeam 550). This instrument is equipped with an SE-2 (secondary electron) detector, an In-Lens SE detector, and an EsB (energy-selective backscattered) detector. The electron optical column has the Gemini-2 design, allowing the operator to observe the sample live with the SEM during FIB milling. We use this instrument to image samples in 3D at a few nanometers resolution, where the iteration of imaging and Ga ion milling generates a stack of images that can then be segmented and modeled as a 3D volume.
Through the neighboring Electron Microscopy Shared Resource, the laboratory also has access to an FEI T12 TEM operating at an accelerating voltage of 120 kV, which is equipped for electron tomography, and a 3k x 3k pixel Gatan Rio cooled CCD camera, and an energy-dispersive x-ray spectrometer for elemental analysis.
Also available is a Zeiss Sigma VP-Gatan 3View SBF-SEM. The Sigma VP 3View system is equipped with a Gatan 3View SBF microtome housed in a Gemini Zeiss SEM column. It includes an InLens secondary electron (SE) detector and a backscattered electron (BSE) detector. Unlike the FIB SEM, the 3View uses a diamond knife microtome which slices off the sample of thickness of 25 – 200nm between imaging.
A Hitachi S4800 SEM, equipped with a cold field emission source and a tilt specimen stage, is also available for studying large specimens.
