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Electron Microscopy Core Facility

The facility provides advanced expertise in electron microscopy, from sample preparation to image analysis, for a wide variety of biological samples.

PyEM: a High-Throughput TEM workflow developed in the EMCF

For specimens that do not permit targeting using Light Microscopy, all available information is obtained using EM.

In order to efficiently find rare or sparsely spread phenotypes, we employ a TEM screening approach. We use automated acquisition using SerialEM driven by image analysis that identifies target features (like cells) in a low-magnification overview of the specimen. At the target features, we can then acquire high-resolution TEM data in 2D or 3D tomography to unveil the underlying ultrastructure.

Software tools for automated transmission electron microscopy.

Schorb M, et al. Nat Methods. 2019 Jun;16(6):471-477.

This approach was also used to characterise centrioles in cancer cells:

Dittrich T and Köhrer S, et al., Multi-Modality Imaging Reveals Structural Centrosome Aberrations As a Potential Driver of Chromosomal Instability in Early-Stage Plasma Cell Disorders. Blood. 2021 November 23; 138;1. https://doi.org/10.1182/blood-2021-150747

As well as in moss spermatids: 

Gomes Pereira S, et al. The 3D architecture and molecular foundations of de novo centriole assembly via bicentrioles. Current Biology. 2021 Oct 11;31(19):4340-4353.e7. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2021.07.063).

PyEM work flow to study centriole abberations in patient cancer cells. Dittrich T., and Köhrer S., et al., 2021.

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