SCSC Instrumentation List

SAMPLE ANALYSIS & PREPARATION

Mammalian cell culture uncubators with temperature and CO2 

control

Mini cell counter to provide highly accurate and repeatable

direct cell/particle size and count over a broad dynamic range

(2-34 microns), with single cell resolution

Automated environmentally controlled grid vitrification 

equipment for plunge-freezing of macromolecules, viruses and 

cells into liquid ethane. Operated at 4-50ºC, 0-100% humidity 

and with single-sided blotting

Automated environmentally controlled grid vitrification 

equipment for plunge-freezing of microorganisms, cells and 

thin tissue slices (<10microns thick) into liquid ethane. 

Operated at 4-50ºC, 0-100% humidity using double-sided 

blotting

High pressure freezing and waffle 

preparation of specimens

The Leica EM ICE provides superior and repeatable high 

pressure freezing of samples up to 200microns thick and 5mm 

in diameter, in an ergonomically designed workstation 

combined with a stereomicroscope for ease of loading and 

manipulating of samples. 

Alveole PRIMO 

Micropatterning device with

Leica Inverted Light 

Microscope

The PRIMO micropatterning system allows fine-tuning cell 

adhesion to mimic in vivo phenotypes, study cellular 

mechanisms or isolate cells in reproducible conditions for 

standardized assays. Cell adhesion cells can be accurately 

positioned on a EM grid simplifying the downstream steps of 

FIB-SEM milling and TEM imaging. Grids and cells can be 

evaluated with the Leica Microscope

The fully automated Leica VT1200 S vibrating blade microtome 

is designed for sectioning fresh tissue specimens.

Sputter-coating device for grid

preparation, including Au, Pt, Pd and Ir 

targets, as well as C thread

Operated at room temperature, the sputter-coater is a versatile 

high vacuum film deposition instrument used to produce 

nanometer thin but robust carbon films, deposit fine-grained 

metal layers and perform glow discharging. At our center it is 

mainly used for grid preparation in the waffle milling workflow.

An easy to operate glow discharging unit used to decrease 

hydrophobicity of TEM grids before vitrification of specimens

Fischione Nanoclean Mode

 1020 Plasmacleaner

The plasma cleaner unit can be used to remove hydrocarbon 

contaminations on TEM and SEM samples, as well as for cryo-

EM hydrophilicity treatment

SAMPLE THINNING

ThermoFisher Aquilos2 

cryoFIB-SEM with iFLM

Lamellae preparation and Slice and 

View 3D/Volume EM data acquisition, 

including integrated fluorescence 

microscopy (iFLM)

The ThermoFisher Aquilos 2 Cryo-FIBSEM is a small dualbeam 

(SDB) dedicated to the automated preparation of thin, electron-

transparent lamellae for high-resolution cryo-ET data collection. 

Aquilos2 also supports the acquisition of image stacks for 

3D/volume-EM through Slice and View imaging. The system 

is equipped with a high-precision EasyLift NanoManipulator for 

Cryo-Lift-Out (CLO) as well as integratedfluorescence microscopy 

(iFLM) for on-the-fly cryoCLEM.

ThermoFisher Aquilos2 

cryoFIB-SEM with iFLM

Lamellae preparation and Slice and 

View 3D/Volume EM data acquisition, 

including integrated fluorescence 

microscopy (iFLM)

The ThermoFisher Aquilos 2 Cryo-FIBSEM is a small dualbeam 

(SDB) dedicated to the automated preparation of thin, electron-

transparent lamellae for high-resolution cryo-ET data collection. 

Aquilos2 also supports the acquisition of image stacks for 3D/

volume-EM through Slice and View imaging. The system is 

equipped with a high-precision EasyLift NanoManipulator for 

Cryo-Lift-Out (CLO) as well as integrated fluorescence microscopy 

(iFLM)for on-the-fly cryoCLEM.

LIGHT MICROSCOPY (LM)

Zeiss Airyscan2 (LSM800) confocal

microscope with Linkam cryostage

Cryo-Fluorescence imaging and 

cryo-CLEM

Platform specifically designed to enable cryo-CLEM 

studies of vitrified specimen. Airyscan2 provides 

excellent SNR that allows observation of low-abundant 

fluorescent labels. Up to three standard cryoEM grids 

can be imaged in a single loading of Linakam cryo-stage 

cassette. ZenConnect software allows integration of data 

from FIB-SEM and TEM instruments

Zeiss AxioZoom V16 with Axiozoom 

712 camera

Brightfield and Fluorescence dissection 

microscope for evaluating cell cultures 

before vitrification

Axio Zoom.V16 gives superior fluorescence brightness in 

large object fields. With Plan-NEOFLUAR Z 2.3x you 

achieve a numerical aperture of NA 0.5 in an object field 

of 1.5 millimeters. One can get superior brightness in 

large object fields and view complete model organisms 

in fluorescence contrast.

Inverted Brightfield and Fluorescence 

microscope for evaluating cell cultures 

before vitrification

The AxioVert is an inverted light microscope with all 

standard contrasting techniques, including DIC, to 

investigate cell cultures.

Zeiss Stemi 508 with Axiocam 208 

camera

Stereo-microscope for inspecting tools 

and small devices

The ZEISS Stemi 508 stereo microscope is Apochromatic 

with 8:1 zoom ratio providing excellent image contrast 

and color accuracy for superior imaging.

CRYO-TEM (COLLLECTION)

ThermoFisher Titan Krios G3 with K3 camera and

Bioquantum GIF

Collection of tiltseries on prepared 

lamellae

300 kV cryoTEM for high-resolution cryoEM/ET 

data acquisition

ThermoFisher 300kV Titan Krios G3 with Falcon4 

camera and SelectrisX energy filter and Cold-FEG

Collection of tiltseries on prepared 

lamellae

300 kV cryoTEM for high-resolution cryoEM/ET 

data acquisition

100kV cryo-TEM for screening vitrified grids 

before and after lamellae preparation

Computation

Workstation with Windows OS and Amira software for visualization, 

processing and analysis of tomography data

Workstation with Ubuntu OS, and IMOD and EMAN2 software for 

cryo-ET data processing and analysis