ALBA Synchrotron
en
ThermoFisher Scientific, Glacios 200kV transmission electron microscope with extreme field emission gun (X-FEG) optics.
Equipped with a cryogenic sample manipulator robot for up to 12 grids and with the last generation of direct electron detector, a Falcon 4, that can take up to 300 movies per hour. Its high level of automation and user guidance of experimental settings enable scientists to efficiently unravel protein structures in 3D, as well as understand their functional context in the biological cell.
Video of the installation process of EM01-Cryo-EM at JEMCA.
The resolution of the microscope has been tested with apoferritin and has been measured to be better than 2.1 Å. The quality of the density map is shown in the following figures.
There is a sample preparation room equipped with the following equipment:
- Vitrobot Marc IV vitrification system
- GLoQube to grid treatment previous to vitrification
- Equpment to clip the grids
- L-N2 dewars to store the grids
The data sets generated are pre-processed on-the-fly with a powerful GPU workstation and can be stored up to 30 days at ALBA. Users can download their data either locally using an external disk or through the network.
Status and Access
The microscope is already accepting users with an important percentage of the time reserved for the partner institutions that have participated in the collaborative ERDF funding. The remaining time is offered to the scientific community with a competitive access through the standard call for proposals managed by the ALBA User Office.
There are different types of access:
Additional information can be provided by the ALBA User Office or contacting directly the Head of the Cryo-TEM Platform.
Partner institutions
This acquisition has been possible thanks to a collaborative funding from ERDF - A way of making Europe, which includes the following additional participants: the Institute for Molecular Biology (IBMB-CSIC) acting as owner of the equipment, the ALBA Synchrotron where the microscope has been installed and is operated, the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Institute for Biomedical Research (IRB Barcelona), the Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG), and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).
Staff
Pablo Guerra Lahoz
Núria Verdaguer
Safety during experiments
What cannot be done at the EM01-Cryo-TEM for safety reasons:
- Any biological sample which requires safety level above 2.
- Radioactive compounds: Radioactive sources as defined in RD 35/2008 will not be accepted. Samples containing radioactive isotopes below these specific limits MUST be declared and acceptance will be studied case by case.
- Illegal substances and/or samples: (f.i. drugs, unregulated agricultural or food samples, etc.) unless it is explicitly proved that it is allowed by Spanish regulations.
Disclaimer: This list is not comprehensive; it only indicates the experimental conditions and sample characteristics that could not be accepted due to technical and/or safety reasons. The acceptance of any materials (including equipment) is subjected to the availability of all required safety conditions and protective equipment.
Additional information
Funding entities
The project is co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the Framework of the ERDF Operative Programme of Catalonia 2014-2020.