Research Highlights

Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy at the 2010 Microscopy and Microanalysis Meeting

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30-08-2010

At the 2010 Microscopy and Microanalysis meeting in Portland, Oregon, NCMIR scientists presented their work "Enhancing Serial Block-Face Scanning Electron Microscopy to Enable High Resolution 3-D Nanohistology of Cells and Tissues," a collaboration with researchers Roger Tsien's laboratory at UCSD. Serial block face scanning electron microscopy is a new method that allows for the automated image acquisition of relatively large volumes of tissue at near nanometer-scale resolution using scanning electron microscopy. At the meeting, they described a newly developed heavy metal staining protocol that dramatically improves the contrast and resolution obtainable by this method. The work was a recipient of a Professional/Technical Staff Award presented by the Microscopy Society of America. 

A detailed protocol for preparing tissue can be obtained here.