Service contracts for transmission electron microscopes in NSERC Guelph regional integrated imaging facility (GRIIF)

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The NSERC Guelph Regional Integrated Imaging Facility (GRIIF), which was formerly the NSERC Guelph Regional STEM Facility (GRSF), serves a variety of investigative functions for the Canadian research community. Over the years it has built up an expertise and microscope instrumentation base that makes it one-of-a-kind worldwide. GRIIF contains transmission electron microscopes (TEMs), atomic force microscopes (AFMs), a holographic microscope, confocal microscopes and all necessary ancillary equipment for their operation. Recently, GRIIF has endeavored to become one of the few facilities capable of cryoTEM, which is one of the few ways bio-matter can be visualized at high resolution in its natural hydrated state. GRIIF has established a worldwide reputation in the elucidation of prokaryotic structure and its physical properties with special emphasis on how microorganisms interact with their surroundings. It has also helped establish a new earth science field named geomicrobiology. GRIIF excels in such diverse research topics as visualizing the agents of infectious disease, the targets of antibiotics, environmentally important microbes (e.g., extremophiles, metal-respiring bacteria, bioremediation agents, archaea, etc.), and microbial biofilms (that are active in disease, the environment and industry). GRIIF has been the primary microscope facility for the Canadian Bacterial Disease Network - National Centre of Excellence (CBDN-NCE) and is currently the primary facility for the Advanced Food and Materials Network - National Centre of Excellence (AFMnet-NCE). Typically ~75-100 researchers (senior investigators, post-doctoral students and graduate students) from Canada and abroad are aided with their research by GRIIF each year.