Electron Microscopy Core

The NHLBI electron microscopy core facility (EM Core) provides DIR researchers access to advanced EM techniques, state-of-the-art equipment, technical assistance, and educational resources to analyze biological samples at the ultrastructural level. The EM Core is equipped to provide service and training for the following techniques and equipment:

• Chemical fixation and room-temperature processing of tissues and cells.
• High-pressure freezing and freeze substitution of tissues, organisms, and cells.
• Ultrathin sectioning and imaging of sections using transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
• Immunogold labeling in tissues and cells by pre- and post-embedding techniques.
• Thawed cryosection immunolabeling (Tokuyasu method).
• Negative staining of proteins, polymers, bacteria, viruses, and membrane vesicles.
• Chemical fixation, critical point drying, sputter-coating, and imaging of biological and inorganic materials using scanning electron microscopy (SEM).
• Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM).
• Volume EM data acquisition utilizing focused ion beam milling scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM).
• Post-acquisition processing and segmentation of cells, organelles, or other structures of interest in FIB-SEM datasets.