MRI: Development of a Cryogenic Sample-Preparation Instrument (NU CRYOCLUSTER)

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This award to Northwestern University is for the development of a versatile, high-throughput instrument for sample preparation of frozen-hydrated soft, bio, and hybrid materials for imaging. The new instrument called CRYOTIGM for cryo-triple broad-beam ion gun milling and freeze-etching/coating will be developed in collaboration with Leica Microsystems. The history of microscopy is a history of human progress fueled by the ability to image, imagine, and then create at ever-smaller length scale. As man-made materials become more similar to the biological structures that inspire them, they increasingly combine nano-sized hard and soft, synthetic and biological components. The multi-disciplinary project team at Northwestern University is tackling cross-cutting research ranging from complex fluids to self-assembling hybrid nanostructures and from inorganic pollutants in the environment to chemical imaging of living tissues. Their objective is to solve a critical roadblock encountered in these research projects, namely, that these samples cannot be dried for imaging without changing the very structures they try to understand and control. The new CRYOTIGM instrument will become the centerpiece of the Northwestern University CRYOCLUSTER, a comprehensive cryogenic sample preparation facility embedded in the open-access NUANCE shared instrumentation facility. The instrument will be used in sample preparation for a broad range of imaging instrumentation at Northwestern University and the Advanced Photon Source. The collaboration with Leica will speed commercialization of the next generation of cryogenic sample preparation instruments. The Northwestern CRYOCLUSTER will be at the core of multiple educational and outreach programs, including a novel, hands-on undergraduate level class titled 'Multiscale Hierarchy in Physical and Life Sciences', and an outreach program developed together with the Chicago Botanic Garden.