Services

Dear users,

 Due to the construction work of the electrical renovation of the 6^th floor CMU building C scheduled from Monday 1^st May until Friday 26^th May 2023, the services of the Electron Microscopy Facility (PFMU) will be temporally severely affected:

• Morgagni and Tecnai 20 TEM microscopes, as well as, BAF060 freeze-fracturing/etching system will be out of order (completely switched off) from Friday 28^th April 2023

• Sample preparation services for TEM: fixation, dehydration, resin embedding, ultramicrotomy and cryo-sectioning, negative staining, freeze-fracturing will be temporally suspended

• SEM imaging and FIBSEM auto slice and view remains fully operational as well as gold coating machine will be relocated to Helios SEM room (E01.3359.a) and critical-point drying device will be relocated to the Histology Facility room (D02.1553.a)

Please, keep in mind, during the renovation period there will be absolutely no access to the C06 floor section of the CMU building.

To resume the services back to normal:

• Monday 29^th to Tuesday 30^th May: Morgagni and Tecnai 20 microscopes will be back on power and checked for any issues and aligned, to be available for the users from Wednesday 31^st May 2023

• All above mentioned services will be fully operational from Monday 29^th May 2023

We would like to ask you to inform PFMU users from your group and to plan your experiments according the outlined schedule and we apologize for any inconvenience caused during this period.  

 Kind regards,

 PFMU staff

Also consult the Price List section

1. Access to the transmission electron microscopes and ancillary equipment.
   Independent access to electron microscopes and ancillary equipment is possible after adequate training.
   
   
2. Training sessions to operate the instruments properly and efficiently.
   Since most new users are not familiar with the instruments, the PFMU staff will train users on a one-to-one basis or in small groups. When the instructor considers a person capable of working by her/himself, she/he will be allowed to use the facility equipment.
   
   
3. Specimen preparation.
   Services include conventional fixation, dehydratation, epon-embedding and sectioning of cells and tissues, cryo-sectioning, immunolabeling, freeze-fracture, critical point drying of specimen, metal coating, etc.

   Please fill the Sample Submission Form before you bring your samples.

4. Access to the Helios 660 Nanolab DualBeam SEM/FIB.

   The Helios microscope is operated by an expert scientist of the core facility. Users wishing to perform scanning EM or 3D reconstruction of cells/tissues with this microscope must contact the facility.

5. Access to AMIRA and MAPS softwares.
   Access to AMIRA software to perform 3D reconstructions and to the MAPS software for correlative microscopy is provided to the PFMU users with a powerful computer located at the Bio-imaging facility.

Examination and interpretation of EM samples are made by the users. If detailed supervision is necessary, users should consider engaging in collaboration with a more experienced EM scientist.