Electron Microscopy
Electron microscopy
We provide access to cutting-edge technologies for electron microscopy studies of biological processes.
The Electron Microscopy Facility is an open plateform, member of french and european infrastrucutre FRISBI, INSTRUCT-ERIC et iNext-Discoverry, providing access to the latest methods and technics in electron microscopy to the European scientific community.
From sample to structure
The facility provides access to the latest generation electron microscopes, and offer his expertise on all the different aspects of projects realized by single particle analysis, tomography or electron diffraction:
- Sample preparation for electron microscopy imaging
- Handling of the equipment available
- Preliminary analysis if the data to validate and tune experimental conditions
- Processing and interpretation of the data to answer biological questions
Engineers
Equipements
Titan Krios
Main features :
- S-FEG operated at 300 kV ;
- Sphercial aberration corrector ;
- Direct Electron Detector Falcon 3 and K3 ;
- BioQuantum Energy Filter;
- Phase plate ;
- Dual axis holder.
The Titan Krios is the most powerful electron microscope to observe biological smaples. It is equiped with an autoloader to handle up to 12 grids in a fully automatized manner. It benefits from the latest technologies for contrast improvment, such as phases plates and energy filter. Its high stability allows to perform long, high resoltion data recording session, in a fully automatized manner, thanks to the SerialEM software.
Glacios
Main features :
- X-FEG operated at 200 kV ;
- Direct Electron Detector K2 Summit ;
- CETA-D for electron diffraction.
The Glacios is a compact yet extremely powerful microscope. It features an automated grid handling system, identical to the Titan Krios, making it the perfect system for sample screening in cryo conditions. Its high-level optical propoerties and stability makes it a cutting edge microscope for observation of biological specimen.
The Glacios is equiped with a CETA-D camera optimized for recording electron diffraction data from protein micro and nano crystals.
Tecnai F20
Main features :
- FEG operated at 200 kV
- Gatan CCD 2K camera
The TF20 is a powerful electron microscope, for quick observation of samples in negative stain or cryo-conditions.
Chameleon
The Chameleon is the latest generation equipment for sample vitrification for electron microscopy. The Chameleon uses a new, blot-free approach, for fast vitrfication of sample after deposition on grid. By limiting the interaction of the sample with the air-water interface at the surface of the grid, the problems of preferential orientation and denaturation commonly observed with other tradition plunge-freezing deivce (e.g. the Vitrobot) are limited.
The Chameleon is a fully automatized freezing device, limiting manual handling of the grids for improved reproducibility and fiability of the method. The vitrification process can be monitored directly thanks to a high speed camera, providing direct feedback and control on the on-going experiment.
Vitrobot MkIV
The Vitrobot is a freezing device for vitrification of cryo-electron microscopy grids, allowing fast and reproducible grid freezing for cryo-electron microscopy experiements.