The SCSB Cryo EM laboratory (Cryo EM Core), located on the first floor of the Medical
Research Building, has laboratory space featuring a BSL-3 room for viral and pathogen work.
In addition the laboratory has an open research space where structure of macromolecules, their
complexes, cell organelles, and other biological systems can be studied using various EM
techniques including cryo-electron microscopy and (cryo-)electron tomography. The
Laboratory has three modern JEOL cryo-electron microscopes with a state-of-the-art 200 keV
JEOL 2200FS cryo EM with in-column electron energy filter and field emission gun, the
brightest available today electron source, a 200 keV JEOL 2100 EM, and a 120 keV JEM1400 microscope.
The high-resolution JEM2200FS (left) is located in the
W.M. Keck
Center for virus imaging BSL-3 containment area which permits the safe structural imaging of
highly infectious pathogens that could not studied in the open research area. This is the first
cryo-EM facility in the U.S. designed for high-resolution structural studies of wild type infectious
agents. The microscope can be controlled remotely through a computer network, which provides for
remote online users and largely extends our user base.
The JEM2100 (right) is available for imaging of non-pathogenic targets. A 120 keV JEM1400
microscope is available for imaging of negatively stained samples, thin, and semi-thick
plastic cell- and tissue sections and electron tomography of these samples. It is used for user
training as well as for imaging and structural studies. A shared Crystallographic/EM Computational
Lab provides high-throughput image-processing with a dedicated 120-core EM
Image-Processing Cluster.
Images are stored in a local EMEN database that is archived remotely.