Linkam Scientific Instruments has revealed that the Leiden University Medical Center has selected the THMS600 temperature stage to aid the cryo-study of biological specimens.
Prof A J Koster at Leiden University Medical Center and his group focus on applications for high-end electron microscopes in cell biology.
His goal is to localise molecular structures in cells using fluorescence microscopy and then transfer the sample to a cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) set up to image the corresponding macromolecular structures in 3D with nm-scale resolution.
Two areas of particular interest include the study of viral infections and viral replication where fluorescence may be used to pinpoint areas worthy of enhanced investigation; and also in the field of vascular biology to study the process of regulated exocytosis of Weibel-Palade bodies (WPBs), a pivotal mechanism through which vascular endothelial cells initiate repair in response to injury and inflammation.
The studies aim to develop a set-up and workflow for cryo-CLEM (correlative light and electron microscopy) that permits visualisation of structures in cryo-FM (fluorescence microscopy) at sub-cellular resolution, and that retrieves those structures accurately in cryo-EM for the purpose of cryo-electron tomography.
The group required a cryo-FM setup that was easy to implement.
Koster and his colleagues opted for the Linkam THMS600, a commercially available heating and freezing stage, which was modified in order to accommodate EM support grids.
The THMS600 stages are used in many applications where high heating/freezing rates and 0.1C accuracy and stability are needed.
Samples can be quickly characterised by heating to within a few degrees of the required temperature at a rate of up to 150C/min with no overshoot, then slowed down to a few tenths of a degrees per minute to closely examine sample changes.
