Sep. 01, 2008

Electron Beam Induced Damage: TEAM0.5 Atom-by-atom Investigation

Electron Beam Induced Damage: TEAM0.5 Atom-by-atom Investigation - A next generation electron microscopes is currently being developed by the Department of Energy as a collaborative effort to redesign the instruments around aberration corrected optics [1]. Within this project, the TEAM 0.5 prototype microscope is currently being commissioned. The instrument is equipped with a high brightness gun and a monochromator [2]. moreAug. 01, 2008

Time-resolved Acoustic Microscopy

Recent growth of interest in the mechanical properties of cells demands for the development of new techniques for the assessement of these atributes. Acoustic microscopy equipped with time-resolved signal ­analysis provides unique possibilities for the determination of dynamical processes in biological cells and allows probing biological specimen with submicrometre resolution. moreAug. 01, 2008

Cardiomyocytes Birefingence Imaging

Quantitative Phase Microscopy is a simple imaging methodology for resolving internal morphology of unstained living specimens. It computes the 2D phase images of a specimen from a combination of bright field images. However, when used in conjunction with polarised light can lead to the simultaneous mapping of the phase and the retardation of an optically anisotropic specimen. Experimentally the procedure is implemented without the need of expensive compensators used in traditional methods.
moreAug. 01, 2008

Is that Copper or Iron in the Liver?

Liver cirrhosis can be due to various causes, including alcohol abuse and viral hepatitis B. Two of the most frequent hereditary metabolic diseases are also indicated: hemochromatosis with pathological iron accumulation and Wilson's Disease with pathological copper accumulation. In order to distinguish them, the Institute of Pathology of the University of Rostock uses energy-filtering transmission electron microscopes for investigation of tissue sections. moreAug. 01, 2008

Rapid Prototyping with DualBeam ­Instruments

DualBeam systems that combine a focused ion beam (FIB) with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) in a single instrument provide valuable rapid prototyping capability that can significantly shorten development times for nanoscale devices in a variety of applications. The DualBeam's strength in prototyping applications derives from its ability to simultaneously create and observe structures with nanoscale resolution. The FIB can remove (mill) and deposit material in complex patterns with dimensional control of a few nanometers. moreAug. 01, 2008

Cryo-electron Tomography of Whole Cells

Cryo-electron tomography was used for studying the molecular organization of the cytoplasm in intact cells. Flat areas of cells grown on EM grids and preserved by rapid freezing within milliseconds were imaged in 3D. In the resulting maps the selected morphological and structural features were analyzed at unprecedented detail, and frequently correlated to light-microscopy images. We portray here host cell-virus interactions, the morphology of neurons and malaria parasites.

Analysis of Cellular Structures and Processes
moreAug. 01, 2008

Macromolecular Complexes

CryoEM can be divided into three different sub-disciplines: electron crystallography where the macromolecules are arranged periodically into thin crystals, single particle cryoEM of randomly oriented isolated ­macromolecular assemblies and electron tomography of vitreous specimens containing objects in situ or in isolated form but being reconstructed individually. These methods provide a comprehensive, complementary approach of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) for studies of biological structure reaching from the atomic to the cellular level.
moreAug. 01, 2008

Applications of Electron Microscopy in Medicine

Applications of electron microscopy, stand-alone and in combination with other microscopy methods, in diverse fields of biological and medical research as well as in medical diagnosis will be one of the main topics at the Microscopy Conference (MC 2007), to be held from 2 to 7 September 2007 at the Saarland University in Saarbrücken (Germany). This is the 33rd Conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektronenmikroskopie e. V. (DGE), which was initially conceived as a national meeting but has achieved in recent years a remarkable international character. more