Bio21 Advanced Microscopy Facility to house one of the most modern 3D scanning electron microscopes

From cell to tissue biopsies and soft materials, cell biologists, engineers and physicists, will soon be able to obtain high resolution, three dimensional images from large sample volumes at the Bio21’s Advanced Microscopy facility.

Following a successful ARC LIEF15 application1 from the University of Melbourne, RMIT, the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute and the Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, the Bio21 Advanced Microscopy Facility will soon house a new type of scanning electron microscope: the Teneo Volume Scope from FEI.

The Teneo Volume Scope from FEI has been designed with automation in mind. It is a novel, serial block-face imaging solution that combines mechanical and optical sectioning, a new way of resolving large biological sample volumes at isotropic resolution in 3 dimensions. 

Whereas with current models, users are limited to image a thinly- sectioned sample, the Teneo volume Scope makes it possible to automatically acquire large volume (up to 1 mm3) on a single run of the microscope at unprecedented resolution (~5-10nm). The microscope has a ultra-microtome installed inside the observation chamber, after an initial set up the tool can be left to run on its own. It will cut serial sections and acquire the corresponding images using the electron backscattered signal leading to a stack of images.  Depending on the resolution needed and the size of the volume to be acquired each run could last from a few hours to several weeks, leading to a tremendous amount of data to be analysed.

Other applications of this microscope would be auto-acquisition of serial sections acquired manually and already prepared on a glass slide, EM grid or any other medium; Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy will be available for samples that require microanalysis. Scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) with low kV will also be one of the main interests on this tool.

Availability

The Teneo Volume Scope will be available early 2016

Disruptions to the Advanced Microscopy Facility

The Advanced Microscopy Facility will undertake extensive renovation to accommodate the new microscope. In the same time frame, the Tecnai F30 cryoTEM will be relocated and housed in a more suitable environment.

It is expected that services in the Advanced Microscopy Facility will be disrupted in October/November 2015 to accommodate for the makeover. Please check the AMF website for more up to date details on disruptions

For more information on timeframe and use of the microscope please contact Dr Eric Hanssen ehanssen [at] uimelb.edu.au, ext 42449.

1 LE150100004. Three dimensional automated electron microscopy. Hanssen E, Bacic T, McFadden GI , McConville MJ, Furness JB, McCulloch DG, Bansal V, North KN.