The University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) has selected a Jeol cryo-electron microscope for its emerging structural biology programme.
The instrument, a transmission electron microscope (TEM), will be housed in a new building planned for completion in 2011 on the UTEP campus.
The JEM-3200FS ordered from Jeol USA is a 300keV cryo-TEM with an omega energy filter for increased contrast and high resolution.
The UTEP research programme, directed by structural biologists Dr Ricardo Bernal and Dr Chuan Xiao, will utilise cryo-electron microscopy for single-particle reconstructions and tomography.
Research projects planned for the new Jeol cryo-TEM include the structure determination of bacteriophages, viruses that infect and kill bacteria, in an effort to find alternatives to antibiotics losing their effectiveness due to bacterial resistance.
The TEM will also be used to analyse the structure of picornavirus/receptor complexes, responsible for more than 50 per cent of all human common colds.
Other projects include the structure of ATPases and chaperonins.
In one of the largest instrumentation grants awarded to UTEP, the National Science Foundation will fund the purchase of the new high resolution, high performance cryo-TEM, which will be shipped from Jeol, in Akashima, Japan.
The JEM-3200FS will include an optional Jeol Automated Data Acquisition System (JADAS) specially developed for cryo-electron microscopy and a high-tilt tomography cryo-transfer system.
The JEM-3200FS combines high resolution and zero-loss sample imaging with analytical performance in a 300kV class analytical TEM.
The modular nature of the JEM-3200FS will allow easy adaptation to emerging and promising techniques, such as phase-plate microscopy using Zernike and electro-static phase plates.
