MRI: Development of a Cryogenic Sample-Preparation Instrument (NU CRYOCLUSTER)

这一奖项授予西北大学，以表彰其开发的多功能、高通量仪器，用于制备用于成像的冷冻水化软材料、生物材料和杂化材料的样品。这种名为CRYOTIGM的新仪器将与徕卡微系统公司合作开发，用于低温三重宽束离子枪球磨和冷冻蚀刻/涂层。显微镜的历史是一部人类进步的历史，人类能够成像、想象，然后以更小的长度尺度进行创造。随着人造材料变得越来越类似于激发它们的生物结构，它们越来越多地结合了纳米尺寸的硬和软、合成和生物成分。西北大学的多学科项目团队正在进行跨学科研究，范围从复杂的流体到自组装的混合纳米结构，从环境中的无机污染物到活组织的化学成像。他们的目标是解决这些研究项目中遇到的一个关键障碍，即如果不改变他们试图理解和控制的结构，这些样本就无法干燥进行成像。新的CRYOTIGM仪器将成为西北大学CRYOCLUSTER的核心，CRYOCLUSTER是一个全面的低温样品制备设施，嵌入开放访问的细微差别共享仪器设施中。该仪器将用于西北大学和高级光子源的广泛成像仪器的样品制备。与徕卡的合作将加快下一代低温样品制备仪器的商业化进程。西北大学CRYOCLUSTER将是多个教育和推广计划的核心，包括一个名为“物理和生命科学的多尺度层次”的新颖的实践本科生课程，以及与芝加哥植物园共同开发的一个推广计划。

This award to Northwestern University is for the development of a versatile, high-throughput instrument for sample preparation of frozen-hydrated soft, bio, and hybrid materials for imaging. The new instrument called CRYOTIGM for cryo-triple broad-beam ion gun milling and freeze-etching/coating will be developed in collaboration with Leica Microsystems. The history of microscopy is a history of human progress fueled by the ability to image, imagine, and then create at ever-smaller length scale. As man-made materials become more similar to the biological structures that inspire them, they increasingly combine nano-sized hard and soft, synthetic and biological components. The multi-disciplinary project team at Northwestern University is tackling cross-cutting research ranging from complex fluids to self-assembling hybrid nanostructures and from inorganic pollutants in the environment to chemical imaging of living tissues. Their objective is to solve a critical roadblock encountered in these research projects, namely, that these samples cannot be dried for imaging without changing the very structures they try to understand and control. The new CRYOTIGM instrument will become the centerpiece of the Northwestern University CRYOCLUSTER, a comprehensive cryogenic sample preparation facility embedded in the open-access NUANCE shared instrumentation facility. The instrument will be used in sample preparation for a broad range of imaging instrumentation at Northwestern University and the Advanced Photon Source. The collaboration with Leica will speed commercialization of the next generation of cryogenic sample preparation instruments. The Northwestern CRYOCLUSTER will be at the core of multiple educational and outreach programs, including a novel, hands-on undergraduate level class titled 'Multiscale Hierarchy in Physical and Life Sciences', and an outreach program developed together with the Chicago Botanic Garden.