three-dimension; electron microscopy; imaging; ultrastructure
Ruegsegger Celine, Stucki David M., Steiner Silvio, Angliker Nico, Radecke Julika, Keller Eva, Zuber Benoit, Ruegg Markus A., Saxena Smita (2016), Impaired mTORC1-Dependent Expression of Homer-3 Influences SCA1 Pathophysiology, in
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Keiser Gesine, De Niz Mariana, Zuber Benoît, Burda Paul-Christian, Kornmann Benoît, Heussler Volker T., Stanway Rebecca R., High resolution microscopy reveals an unusual architecture of the Plasmodium berghei endoplasmic reticulum, in
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Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of ultrathin tissue sections has played a critical role in our understanding of cell and tissue structure and function. Most of the images gathered with this technique are two-dimensional (2D) and have provided a wealth of information. Nev-ertheless three-dimensional (3D) images are required to tackle a number of biological problems. Over the past 10 years, electron tomography has become a widely used 3D TEM method involv-ing automatic data collection and semi-automatic three-dimensional reconstruction. High-resolution 3D data can be obtained within less than an hour. Nonetheless the volume that can be analysed with this technique is limited to the thickness of the ultrathin section (typically lower than 300 nm), which is still much too small to address many issues. On the other hand, serial section TEM has been used since the early days of electron microscopy (EM) to recon-struct larger volumes albeit at lower resolution. The main drawback of this technique lies nonetheless in its technical difficulty and in its low throughput, which limits the sample thick-ness that can be practically analysed to a few micrometres in most cases.Quite recently, serial block face scanning electron microscopy (SBF-SEM) has emerged as a powerful technique to obtain 3D reconstructions of large biological samples. The latter are de-hydrated, heavy metal stained and resin embedded similarly as for TEM but the whole resin block, as opposed to ultrathin sections, is inserted in the microscope. The microscope is equipped with an internal ultramicrotome. After acquiring an image of the sample surface, which appears quite similar to a TEM image, an ultrathin section is removed from the sample and an image of the newly exposed surface is obtained. This process is fully automatic and can be repeated hundreds of times overnight or many thousands of times over longer period of time, leading to reconstructions of several hundred micrometre thickness.The Institute of Anatomy has nearly 50 years' experience in electron microscopy. The Institute and the applicants, who have pioneered several advanced EM and 3D X-ray imaging modalities, would like to acquire an SBF-SEM device in order to stay at the forefront of ultrastructural research. 22 research projects, of which 15 originate from groups external to the Institute of Anatomy, will directly benefit from this new technology. Moreover, this should prove very valu-able to members of other academic centres of Switzerland (see projects and support letters) as well as to members of the Industry since the Institute of Anatomy provides service to external researchers.