The Electron Microscopy Facility of the Institute of Neuroscience (previously the Electron Microscopy Facility of the Brain Research Institute) was established in 1980 and is currently run by Qiang Song. At present, equipments managed by this facility include a Jeol JEM-1230 transmission electron microscope, a Hitachi S-2460N scanning electron microscope, a Hitachi E-1010 Ion Sputter, a HCP-2 Critical Point Dryer, a LKB-Ultrotome Nova, a LKB-Ultrotome V, a Leica CM1900 cryostat, a Leica CM3000 cryostat, a Leica SP9000 knife sharpener, a MD-2 domestic automatic knife sharpener, an American Optical Corp Microtome 860, an American Optical 820 Rotary Microtome, and an Oxford Vibratome Model G. Our facility is open 9 hours per day and 5 days per week for services on the electron microscopes and 14 hours per day and 7 days per week for use of the cryostats.
Electron microscopy is one of the most widely used techniques in biomedicine, cell biology, pathology, physiology, histology and embryology. In addition to its importance for morphological studies, when used in combination with image processing and three dimensional reconstruction, it provides important data for life science and clinical research.
The transmission electron microscope (TEM) is widely used for obtaining high-resolution images of ultrastructures. The samples are prepared as ultrathin slices (no more than 100 nm thick, usually around 60 nm when operated at 100 KV). The ultrathin slice preparation is key to obtaining good images, and its principals and practical aspects are similar to but more difficult than paraffin sectioning for light microscopy, including fixation, dehydration, embedding, staining and shadowing steps.
In scanning electron microscope (SEM), an electron beam (< 0.01 mm in diameter) launched by an electron gun is focused on successive points of the specimen through an optical system consisting of condensers and objective lens. The electons scattered by each point in the sample are collected through detectors, amplified and processed to generate three dimensional images.
The scanning electron microscope has been widely used as a super optical microscope in all branches of sciences because of its many advantages, including:
1. SEM can provide a three-dimensional high-resolution image of the sample surface, complementary to the TEM;
2. It can provide continuous magnification from 20-20,000 fold, and can provide high resolution images even at high magnification;
3. Sample preparation is comparatively simple.
The Electron Microscopy Facility provides service to investigators of ION as well as those from other SIBS affiliated institutions on an hourly-fee basis or a fee-for-service basis. Outside users from surrounding universities and local biotechnology industries are accommodated schedule permitting.
