Center for Dementia Research’s New Electron Microscopy (EM) Lab is Now Open
New York – Earlier this month, the Center for Dementia Research at the Nathan Kline Institute officially opened the Electron Microscopy Facility. The EM Lab Director, Dr. Chris Goulbourne, has some new equipment at his disposal – a new electron microscope, microtome, and Vitrobot. Installation of the new instruments was no small feat. Three tons of equipment were delivered in nine very large crates and took three weeks to install. A state -of-the-art Transmission Electron Microscope (Thermo Fisher Talos L120C) is capable of magnifications up to 650,000-fold and resolution to 0.2 nanometers. This enables NKI and external researchers to visualize the detailed ultrastructure of cells and tissues as well as the distribution of proteins across various animal and cell models of disease. The electron microscope can also generate 3D data sets by using a specialized tomography holder, which enables an increased understanding of ultrastructural organization. These 3D datasets can be visualized using a dedicated computer workstation that has Inspect3D and Amira software installed. A Thermo Fisher Mark IV Vitrobot is also NEWLY available in the facility for the rapid freezing of cells, organelles or proteins for visualization on the microscope using a specialized cryoholder. Additionally, the facility offers advice and sample preparation for employing correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) and Nano Secondary Ion Mass (NanoSIMS) spectroscopy for tracking stable isotope tagged molecules.