Electron Microscopy

The Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF) at the CIB provides scientific and technical support to research groups applying methods of ultra-structural analysis, immunodetection and cryo-electron microscopy. The EMF offers several techniques in transmission electron microscopy (TEM) focus on two main areas of application, microscopy at the cellular level for the study of tissues and cells, and macromolecular microscopy for the analysis of macromolecular complexes. At the cellular level, the techniques available are: fixation and embedding of biological specimens in epoxy and acrylic resins for analysis by conventional transmission microscopy, ultra-microtome and immunolabelling. At the level of macromolecules, the EMF provides the necessary equipment for sample preparation and their observation in the microscope at both room temperature and liquid nitrogen temperature (cryo-electron microscopy).

The EMF is equipped with a JEOL transmission electron microscope JEM-1230 with capacity to operate at 120 kV. and digital camera CMOS TVIPS TemCam-F416, 16 mega pixels, and a 16x16 micron of pixel size, placed post-column, which allows data collection at high and medium resolution that can be collected and stored directly in digital format. Software for automatic low dose imaging is also being used. The Facility has a Vitrobot (FEI) for cryo-sample preparation, a Gatan system for cryo-sample preparation (“Cryoplunge”) a cryo-holder and a Gatan anti-contamination device. In addition, the EMF has one AFS, two ultra-microtome Reichert, a vaporizer Polaron Turbo and a Glow Discharge device Quorum GloQube dual camera.

In the next months the EMF will be equipped with a last generation Cryo-electron microscopy with capacity to operate at 120 kV. and able to operate automatically. This new equipment will allow automatic data acquisition for single particle, tomography and cellular biology experiments. The purchase of this equipment will be posible thanks to the following grant:

Project: Crio-microscopio electrónico de transmisión para el estudio de sistemas biológicos.
Convocatoria: AEI - Adquisición de Equipamiento Científico-Técnico 2021
Referencia: EQC2021-006930-P financiado por MCIN/ AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033 y por la Unión Europea "NextGenerationEU"/ "PRTR"
Investigador principal: Ernesto Arias Palomo
Duración: 01/06/2021-31/12/2023

The times for the use of the EMF for non-experts users, those we need the assistance of the technician, is from 9:00 to 17:30, Monday to Thursday and Friday from 9:00 to 14:00. The times for those expert users that do not need the assistance of the technician at the facility is from 8:00 to 19:00, Monday to Friday. If for any reason a non-expert users needs to use the facility at a different time she/he should contact the EMF.

External users should contact CIB at +34-91-8373112 extension 4293. E-mail: melectronica