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Center for Structural Biology

CSB Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility

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Facility Overview

The Center for Structural Biology Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility houses  cryo transmission electron microscopes for high resolution data collection of biological specimens by tomography and single-particle analysis.

The Titan Krios G4 is the state-of-the-art 300kV microscope that combines equipment stability, enhanced automation and advanced software to aid researchers in efficient data collection. This microscope is equipped with a Volta phase plate, Gatan’s BioQuantum energy filter, K3 and Falcon3 direct electron detector (DED) cameras and is computationally supported by multiple GPU workstations and a local 600TB RAID system. The Glacios 200 kV microscope is equipped with a Falcon4i direct electron detector and is capable of single particle, tomographic and MicroED applications.  The L120C 100kV TEM with Ceta-S 4k x 4k CMOS detector is used for screening and collecting images of negatively-stained specemins. The facility also has two ThermoScientific Vitrobots, one Leica EM GP2, two carbon/metal evaporators, glow discharge units and two Gatan 626 side-entry cryo sample holders.

The microscopes are overseen by experienced staff who offer consultation and training in negative-stain and cryo sample preparation, single particle analysis, tomography, MicroED, data processing and additional computational support.

Visit the facility iLab site for equipment reservations, training and consultation requests. Click here for information to set up an account for ACCRE and SBGrid.

Mission Statement

The goal of the CSB Cryo-EM Facility is to make TEM accessible to all interested researchers at Vanderbilt. TEM is one of the fastest developing, cutting-edge structural techniques for exploring the organization of biological macromolecules. The unique strength of TEM is its versatility. Structures determined using TEM can span resolution ranges from very low- to atomic-levels (>30–1.8Å) and do not require crystalline samples for analysis.

In pursuit of its goal, the CSB Cryo-EM Facility enables TEM training and outreach by:

  • Providing extensive training to new users.
  • Providing advice and support in specimen preparation, data collection and image processing, computational image analysis, and structure determination.

Contact us to learn more about the CSB Cryo-EM Facility.

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