The Cornell Microscopy Center (CIMC) is an excellent resource center for light and electron microscopies. Trained users can use the equipment at the Center on a fee basis or take advantage of the research services offered.

Electron Microscopy Equipment

Transmission Electron Microscopes

  • FEI Philips TECNAI 12 BioTwin: This state-of-the-art equipment runs under Windows NT 4.0 operating system, and has 20-120 kV high voltage, ultra clean high vacuum, offers high performance, versatility, high productivity and ease of operation. The computer controlled eucentric goniometer stage can be tilted to + or - 80 degrees. The unit is also equipped with a high resolution, cooled Gatan 689 CCD digital imaging system for acquiring 1024X 1024 digital images, using Digital micrograph software.
  • Philips EM 201: This is the work-horse, and teaching instrument. It is equipped with a Gatan Dual Scan cooled CCD 1024X1024 digital imaging system.


Scanning Electron Microscopes

  • LEO DSM960 with a La B6 gun
  • Field Emission Hitachi 4500 with an ambient, and a cryo stage
  • PGT-IMIX Energy Dispersive Microanalysis System with a thin window detector


Cryo Equipment

  • Balzers BAF 400K Freeze Fracture unit
  • Bal-Tec High Pressure Freezer
  • RMC Propane Jet Freezer
  • Cryostar Ultra-Low Temperature (-95 C) Freezer


Miscellaeous

  • Five ultramicrotomes (Reichert/Leica; RMC), one with a cryo sectioning attachment (Reichert/Leica)
  • Photographic Darkroom Equipment (including a Durst pointsource enlarger)
  • Computers (Mac/Windows), printers, and scanners


Light Microscopy Equipment

Computer-controlled Zeiss Axioplan 2 with Axiophot 2 photo system; bright field, phase contrast and Nomarski DIC optics, five objectives including a 1.4 NA Oil immersion objective and 1.4 NA condenser; Atto Arc 100 watt mercury burner with an intensity control for fluorescence microscopy, and two 35 mm camera backs. Images can also be viewed or recorded through a color CCD video camera, or a digital camera system.

The color CCD camera system consists of a Peltier-cooled Optronix DEI-470 camera, Sony Trinitron PVM-1353MD high resolution color monitor, and a Sony Mavigraph color video printer.

The digital CCD camera system consists of a SensiCam SVGA (Cooke Corp.) high-performance interline Progressive Scan " lens-on-chip" camera with electronic shutter, 1280(H)X1024(V) pixels, 12 bit dynamic range at 12.5 MHz, and full frame readout rate of 8 fps (30 fps with binning). The digital camera is controlled via a PCI board in a Dell Dimension XPS DX300, 300 MHz workstation with a 8 GB hard drive, 256 Mb RAM, and an Iomega ZIP drive. The software for controlling the camera and image acquisition is Media Cybernetics Image Pro Plus, version 3.0.

A sophisticated deconvolution software, SlideBook, allows the instrument to function as a Digital Confocal Microscope. Digital Confocal Microscopes (DCM) remove out of focus haze computationally using a standard fluorescence system. Since the Axioplan2 is motorized, the software will control the step focusing of the Z axis. The DCM would complement the features available in the standard Laser Confocal systems in the campus. For example, DCM would be a better choice when using fluorescent dyes that tend to bleach rapidly in Laser Confocal systems or specimens that get affected by the intense laser beam. DCM also permits the use of a wider range of fluorescent dyes. In addition, DCM has the optical flexibility not available in a standard Laser Confocal system. For example, in DCM it is possible to use digital bright field, dark field, and Differential Interference Contrast (DIC) microscopy.

An inverted Zeiss Axiovert 135 M microscope with motorized nose piece and a bottom port for video is also available with long-working distance 10X and 30X phase contrast objectives to facilitate micromanipulation. The unit has an Atto Arc 100 watt mercury burner with an intensity control for fluorescence microscopy. This microscope will be equipped by June, 1998 with a microinjection system including a pressure injector, a micro pipette puller, and a CCD imaging system .

When the Digital Confocal Software and the Microinjection Station is ready for use, we will post it in the ANNOUNCEMENT section of this website.
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