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EMBL Imaging Centre

Open access to cutting-edge electron and light microscopy

We provide researchers from Europe and beyond with a synergistic portfolio of imaging services including cryo-EM, super-resolution and intravital microscopy to enable new ground-breaking research that crosses the scales of biology.

Cellular cryo-tomography and cryo-volume imaging

Crossbeam 550

The Crossbeam 550 (focused ion beam-scanning electron microscope) from ZEISS allows data acquisition in 3 dimensions at isotropic nanometer voxel size. Samples from cells to tissues and organisms can be looked at with electron microscopic detail. Chemically fixed, high-pressure frozen and freeze-substituted as well as purely frozen samples can be analysed. On top of data production, the Crossbeam550 is also equipped to generate cryo-lamellae to be analysed further in a transmission electron microscope e.g. using tomography.

Unique features

  • Isotropic volume acquisition down to a few nm
  • Large 3D volume acquisition
  • Cryo lamella preparation

Important specifications

  • Detectors: InLens, EsB and Se
  • Quorum Cryo-SEM preparation system
  • ZEISS Atlas 5 software
High-pressure frozen and freeze substituted HeLa cell imaged at 5 nm voxel size with the Crossbeam 550.
Credit: Stuart Ingham/EMBL.
Zeiss Crossbeam 550. Credit: Stuart Ingham/EMBL.

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