Research

Research

The Centre for Electron Microscopy is a research lab of the faculty, which is used by scientists, phD students, undergraduates, and technicians of the various institutes, in order to investigate the structure of a wide variety of biological samples, like molecules, cells, or tissues. The centre is located at the Institute of Anatomy, chair for molecular and celluar anatomy, Prof. Dr. Ralph Witzgall. We provide a large variety of sample preparation techniques, incl. plunge-freezing and high-pressure freezing, alternatively chemical fixation; dehydration by critical-point drying or by freeze-substitution fixation; embedding in various resins; freeze-drying and heavy-metal shadowing; Platinum sputtering; negative-staining; thin sectioning; immuno-labeling; electron tomography of plastic-embedded samples; and also cryo-TEM of unstained specimen.
Interested users are asked to inquire personally or by e-mail (to: reinhard.rachel@ur.de). Initially, there is a brief discussion and consultation about the most suitable microscopy and sample preparation techniques. Use of all equipment available is restricted to trained people. Hence, users are trained initially, enabling them to use the equipment appropriately and efficiently. Use of the electron microscopes is possible during daytime from 7:00 to 11:00, 11:00 to 14:00, and 14:00 to 18:00, Monday to Friday. Use at other times is possible, but by appointment only, and restricted to well-trained users. There is a web-based scheduling system, in order to find time-slots when the microscopes are available to be used (max. three weeks in advance).
link to the scheduling system

Details of the use of the equipment are specified in the "terms of use" for the centre for EM.
Nutzerordnung des Zentrum für Elektronenmikroskopie vom 8. April 2014 (PDF)