Procedure for using the CEM facility at the NYSBC

The NYSBC The New York Structural Biology Center is a 501 (c)(3) corporation incorporated in the State of New York. The corporation is governed by a Board representing ten institutional members. The institutional members are:

Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University
City University of New York
Columbia University
Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York University
Rockefeller University
Wadsworth Center of the Department of Health
Joan and Sanford Weill Medical College of Cornell University

If you belong to an NYSBC-affiliated institution

If you are a member of any of these affiliate institutions, you have access to both the instrumentation and staff resources of the cryo-EM facility at the NYSBC. If you are interested in embarking on a cryo-EM project at the NYSBC follow these steps:

Read thoroughly both the "CEM Introduction" and "Interested in EM?" pages in order to familiarize yourself with Cryo-EM and how the NYSBC can help in furthering your project.
Discuss your project with CryoEM staff and/or your representative on the CryoEM Operations Committee.
Create an account at NYSBC Intranet for yourself. Help?
Register Your Project by logging into the NYSBC Intranet (TWiki) and using the following intranet form: CemProposalMainEdit
Read information for New NYSBC Users.
Become officially affiliated with NYSBC, which is required for your use of the instruments and will make you eligible for an ID card, for computer accounts and for access to our equipment signups. Steps for affiliation are detailed on the following Intranet page: AffiliationProcedure. You must send the information to your rep on the CryoEM Operations Committee^?. It might help to also send them your project description (hint: just send them a link to the intranet proposal page created in step 2 above).
To obtain 24-hour access please read the AllHours document. This is not a requirement for initial affiliation and will require specialized training. You will have to obtain a C14 OPERATIONS OF A CHEMISTRY LABORATORY CERTIFICATE OF FITNESS. After presenting this certificate, you will be specifically trained for 24-hour access by one of the NYSBC staff and the permissions associated with your ID card will be modified to allow access to relevant equipment.

If you do not belong to an NYSBC-affiliated institution

If you are not a member of any of the affiliate institutions listed above, but would like to inquire about access to the facilities of the NYSBC, please contact us at cem@nysbc.org.

NYSBC Cryo-EM facility and resources

Instrumentation To enable the application of the above-mentioned techniques to a variety of biologically relevant samples, the NYSBC has four electron microscopes for use by affiliate members: A 120kV screening microscope (JEOL 1230); two 200kV microscopes (Tecnai F20 and JEOL 2100); and a 300kV energy-filtered microscope (JEOL 3200). The 200kV and 300kV instruments have field emission guns and two digital cameras, a fast scan camera for searching and focusing, and a slow-scan camera for image acquisition. All microscopes have computer interfaces that communicate with specialized programs for automated acquisition of data, which is convenient for single particle analysis and crystallography and absolutely essential for tomography. In addition to the microscopes, we have all necessary equipment for sample preparation, such as two plungers to freeze crystals or macromolecular suspensions, two high pressure freezers for tissue, a freeze substitution machine, two ultramicrotomes, a carbon evaporator for making sample support films and a wide variety of negative stains. Thus, affiliates simply need to provide suitable samples and all EM-specific sample preparation can be handled at NYSBC. For further details see equipment .

Equipment Sign-up:

Instrument sign up policies and procedures are described at CemSchedulingOverview.

Technical assistance

In addition to instrumentation, affiliates can take advantage of NYSBC staff expertise in each of these four technologies. Initially, staff will discuss the feasibility of projects and lay out a plan for the different stages of a proposed research project. Affiliates can work closely with NYSBC staff to evaluate the suitability of existing samples for achieving specified goals and in implementing any unusual experimental approaches. Staff members are also available for pilot studies to produce preliminary reconstructions suitable for inclusion in grant proposals. A sustained commitment from the affiliate lab is generally required to achieve the ultimate goal and NYSBC staff routinely provides training to individual researchers to be able to function in the supported environment at NYSBC. At the beginning of a project, this involves plunging samples into liquid ethane, transferring these samples into the microscope column and collecting the necessary images. Microscopes are aligned each morning and staff is available for assisting in sample loading and microscope operation. Once affiliates obtain a basic understanding of operation, a training course is used to establish independence, thus making microscopes available 24/7. NYSBC offers a course each fall semester in image processing in the fall semester in which leading researchers from the NY area together with NYSBC staff teach the principles and practice of 3D structure determination by electron microscopy. All major software packages are installed at NYSBC and continuing guidance in their use is available through personal interactions with our staff.

Contact us:

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us at cem@nysbc.org.