Acquisition of a Cryostage and Transfer System to Characterize Biological Systems and Frozen Materials with Environmental Scanning Electron Microscopy

购买冷冻台和转移系统，用环境扫描电子显微镜表征生物系统和冷冻材料。霍尔顿和同事在加州大学，圣巴巴拉（UCSB）购买设备，看看冷冻材料的精细结构。 该设备，一个冷冻台和传输系统，将安装在一个环境扫描电子显微镜，UCSB通过以前的NSF奖获得。 该组合系统支持现代环境，生物分子，生物工程和材料科学的各个方面。通过环境扫描电子显微镜，研究人员可以观察复杂的生物，地质和人造材料，而不必通过事先涂层或干燥来破坏样品。 冷冻台和转移系统的增加使科学家能够观察雪或冰，或者冷冻生物组织并在冷冻时观察它们。 UCSB的科学家和工程师现在可以处理所有类型的冷冻样品，从而了解重要、精细材料的真实的、未改变的结构。从长远来看，许多项目将使用CST-ESEM。 最初的项目包括：通过冷冻、压裂和观察内部水来发现土壤聚集体中细菌菌落所持的水分。 我们将研究温带和苔原土壤，了解细菌如何在每种土壤中生存。观察冰晶的结合，称为烧结。 在高山地区，烧结或缺乏烧结可控制雪崩危险。测定雪中的杂质。 雪中含有大气中的污染物，这些污染物在融化时被释放出来。冰冻的细菌被贴上了特殊的识别分子。我们可以了解标签附着在哪里以及如何附着，从而研究污染物如何与细菌相互作用，通过冷冻和成像来了解新的“可调”生物材料如何随着时间的推移而变化。 这种材料有望用于新的人工组织、粘合剂和改进的药物输送。获得显微镜冷冻台的广泛意义是多方面的。 首先，来自UCSB及其他地区的研究人员将使用该仪器研究与社会相关的主题，如土壤细菌的污染物生物降解，雪崩形成，融雪中浓缩污染物的释放，对外星生命的猜测，全球变暖可能引起的变化，以及下一代生物医学材料和设备。 其次，我们将教许多学生如何获取最先进的数据，使他们能够发展成为下一代训练有素的环境和医疗问题解决者。 第三，我们将在全国范围内推进研究基础设施，因为我们将成为美国第一批配备冷冻台的环境扫描电子显微镜之一。 最后，我们将吸引和帮助来自UCSB，当地和世界各地的研究人员，从而扩大我们的研究基础设施的影响力。

Acquisition of a Cryostage and Transfer System to Characterize Biological Systems and Frozen Materials with Environmental Scanning Electron MicroscopyA grant has been awarded to Dr. Patricia A. Holden and colleagues at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) for purchasing equipment to look at the fine structure of frozen materials. The equipment, a Cryostage and Transfer System, will be mounted on an environmental scanning electron microscope that UCSB acquired through a previous NSF award. The combined system supports every aspect of modern environmental, biomolecular, bioengineering and materials sciences. With an environmental scanning electron microscope, researchers can observe complicated biological, geological and manmade materials without having to damage the samples by coating or drying beforehand. The addition of the cryostage and transfer system allows scientists to look at snow or ice, or to freeze biological tissues and look at them while frozen. UCSB scientists and engineers will now be able to work with frozen samples of all types and thereby learn about the real, unaltered structure of important, delicate materials.Long term, many projects will use the CST-ESEM. Initial projects include:Discovering how much water is held by bacterial colonies in soil aggregates by freezing, fracturing and observing internal water. We will study temperate and tundra soils to learn about how bacteria live in each type of soil. Observing bonding of ice crystals, called sintering. Sintering, or lack of sintering, controls avalanche hazard in alpine regions.Determining the impurities in snow. Snow contains atmospheric pollutants that are released with initial melting.Freezing bacteria that have been tagged with special identifying molecules. We can learn where and how the tags attach and thereby study how pollutants interact with bacteria.Learning how new "tunable" biological materials change over time by freezing and imaging them at different times in their development. Such materials have promise for new artificial tissues, adhesives, and improved drug-delivery.The broad significance of acquiring the cryostage for our microscope is multifold. First, researchers from UCSB and beyond will use this instrument to study socially relevant themes such as pollutant biodegradation by soil bacteria, avalanche formation, release of concentrated pollutants in snowmelt, speculations about extraterrestrial life, likely changes that global warming will cause, and the next generation of biomedical materials and devices. Second, we will teach many students how to acquire state-of-the-art data so they can develop into the next generation of well-trained environmental and medical problem-solvers. Third, we will advance the research infrastructure nationally because ours will be one of the first environmental scanning electron microscopes with a cryostage in the USA. Finally, we will attract and help researchers from UCSB, the local region, and around the world, thus enlarging the influence of our research infrastructure.