Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope

亚琛工业大学附属医院的电子显微镜设备申请了一台用于研究的环境扫描电子显微镜。电子显微镜设施是亚琛工业大学医学院的一个中心设施，由病理学研究所领导。除了我们的研究，特别是在方法发展领域以及应用研究，特别是在肾脏病理学领域，我们的设施支持研究小组进行电子显微镜研究，通过许多密切合作或服务工作。现有的环境扫描电子显微镜已经使用了19年，不在制造商的备件和服务保修范围内。为了保证扫描电子显微镜图像在未来的研究中，电子显微镜设备需要更换设备。由于我们大学医院的医学研究范围很广，扫描电子显微镜检查的样品非常多变。它们主要是有机水合材料，如组织、细胞、细菌和水凝胶。硬组织材料，如骨骼和牙齿，以及生物医学材料，如金属支架，植入物，纳米颗粒和塑料也被分析。为了适应这一范围的样品，扫描电子显微镜需要一个环境系统，用于减少未涂层和湿样品的伪影成像，一个EDX检测器系统，用于测量骨密度测量和颗粒检测的元素分布，以及一个足够大的样品室，用于种植学领域的较大样品。除了这些功能外，该设备还有望提供新的可能性，从而扩大该设施可用的方法范围。例如，该设备应启用阵列断层扫描技术，该技术可用于生成连续切片的三维重建。此外，该仪器将配备一个微探针，这将允许在仪器内操作样品并测量样品上的压缩力和拉伸力。有了这台设备，我们的设施将能够最佳地支持在大学医院的医学研究与扫描电子显微镜检查在未来。

The Electron Microscopy Facility at the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen applies for an environmental scanning electron microscope for research. The Electron Microscopy Facility is a central facility of the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University under the direction of the Institute of Pathology. Besides our research especially in the field of methodological developments as well as applied research especially in the field of nephropathology, our facility supports research groups in performing electron microscopic investigations by numerous close collaborations or service work. The currently existing environmental scanning electron microscope has already reached the age of 19 years and is outside the spare parts and service warranty of the manufacturer. To be able to guarantee scanning electron microscope images for research in the future, the Electron Microscopy Facility needs a replacement device.The samples to be examined by scanning electron microscope are very variable due to the broad spectrum of medical research at our university hospital. Predominantly, they are organic hydrated materials such as tissues, cells, bacteria, and hydrogels. Hard tissue materials such as bone and teeth are also analyzed, as well as biomedical materials such as metallic scaffolds, implants, nanoparticles, and plastics. To accommodate this range of samples, the scanning electron microscope needs an environmental system for artifact-reduced imaging of uncoated and wet samples, an EDX detector system to measure element distributions for bone density measurements and particle detection, for example, and a sufficiently large sample chamber for larger samples from the field of implantology. In addition to these functions, the device is also expected to offer new possibilities and thus expand the range of methods available at the facility. For example, the device should enable the technique of array tomography, which can be used to generate 3-dimensional reconstructions of serial sections. In addition, the instrument will be equipped with a microprobe, which will allow sample manipulation inside the instrument and measurement of compressive and tensile forces on the samples. With this equipment, our facility will be able to optimally support medical research at the University Hospital with scanning electron microscopy examinations in the future.