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

西北大学的这一奖项是为了开发一种多功能，高通量的仪器，用于冷冻水合软，生物和混合材料的成像样品制备。 用于低温三重宽束离子枪铣削和冷冻蚀刻/涂层的新仪器CRYOTIGM将与徕卡显微系统公司合作开发。 显微镜的历史是人类进步的历史，人类进步的动力来自于成像、想象，然后以更小的尺度创造。随着人造材料变得越来越类似于激发它们的生物结构，它们越来越多地联合收割机纳米尺寸的硬和软，合成和生物成分。西北大学的多学科项目团队正在处理从复杂流体到自组装混合纳米结构，从环境中的无机污染物到活组织的化学成像等交叉研究。他们的目标是解决这些研究项目中遇到的一个关键障碍，即这些样品不能在不改变他们试图理解和控制的结构的情况下干燥成像。新的CRYOTIGM仪器将成为西北大学CRYOCLUSTER的核心，CRYOCLUSTER是一个嵌入在开放式NUANCE共享仪器设施中的综合低温样品制备设施。 该仪器将用于西北大学和高级光子源的各种成像仪器的样品制备。 与徕卡的合作将加速下一代低温样品制备仪器的商业化。 西北CRYOCLUSTER将在多个教育和推广计划的核心，包括一个新颖的，动手本科水平类标题为“多尺度层次的物理和生命科学”，并与芝加哥植物园共同开发的推广计划。

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.