Multi-purpose Transmission Electron Microscope for Wolfson Bioimaging Facility

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Bioimaging, the investigation of cells, tissues and organisms by microscopy, is a key technology in life science research. Electron microscopes enable scientists to get structural information about cell components at nanometre scale in specially preserved cells and tissues, and at atom-level in isolated proteins preserved by specialised freezing techniques. A transmission electron microscope (TEM) forms images by detecting electron beam after it passes through material and is a widely used technique in many fields of biology and biomedicine. The University of Bristol has a leading bioimaging facility with TEMs housed alongside specialised light microscopes that are designed to locate fluorescent molecules inside cells and tissues. Bristol's researchers and visitors from other universities and commercial companies exploit the advantages of both types of microscope to explore cellular dynamics by light microscopy, then fine resolution of cell architecture by TEM. Increasingly our researchers are also learning about 3D architecture of cells and proteins using specialised electron microscopy techniques. Together, these techniques support a wide range of research activities to understand and exploit the rules of life. Unfortunately, such instruments become unreliable as they age and the typical lifespan is ~15 years. Our very heavily used instruments are already 15 years old, have become increasingly unreliable in recent months and support is no longer available from the manufacturer to maintain them in sufficiently reliable state to enable efficient progress of our users' research. For these reasons, we are seeking funds to replace our current 2 TEM instruments with a single multi-purpose instrument capable of supporting a broad range of research projects in Bristol University, neighbouring universities and our growing external user base reliant on this important bioimaging technique.