Acquisition of a Cryogenic Field Emission EM

描述（由申请人提供）：在现代生物学和相关生物医学研究中，对样品中尽可能接近自然状态的精细结构细节的可视化需求越来越重要。本提案要求拨款购买一台配备Gatan冷冻转移系统的日立S-4800场发射扫描电子显微镜。该仪器将提供在低加速电压下成像生物样品和具有纳米长度特征的相对柔软材料的必要能力，并在适用的情况下使用现代低温技术进行完全水合条件。实际上，本提案中包括的所有研究人员都打算在低原子序数、不导电的样品上使用该仪器，其中大多数是需要低温制备和观察以保存结构细节的水合样品。该仪器的收购将影响药物和基因传递、生物分子和生物电子信号、分子传感系统和其他重要的生物医学研究新技术。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The need to visualize fine structural details in samples that are as close to the natural state as possible is increasingly important in modern biology and related biomedical research. This proposal requests funds for the purchase of a Hitachi S-4800 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope equipped with a Gatan cryotransfer system. This instrument will provide capabilities necessary for imaging biological samples and relatively soft materials having features on the nanometer length scale under low accelerating voltages and, where applicable, fully hydrated condition using modern cryogenic technology. Virtually all of the investigators included in this proposal intend to use this instrument on low atomic number, non-conductive samples, with the majority being hydrated samples that require a cryogenic preparation and viewing to preservation of structural detail. Some of the research that will be impacted by acquisition of this instrument are drug and gene delivery, biomolecular & bioelectronic signaling, molecular based sensing systems and other important new technologies in biomedical research.