Welcome!
The Electron Microscopy Core Facility of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) Division of Intramural Research (DIR), located on the Bethesda, MD campus of NIH, was established in June 2006. Our mission is to provide advice, technical services, training and use of facilities to NHLBI intramural scientists when aspects of their research require electron microscopy (EM) to answer specific questions. In general, this refers to questions involving subcellular, supramolecular or macromolecular structure at a level of resolution below that of the light microscope. The facility also offers training and use of its electron microscopes as well as collaboration on projects to scientists outside of the NHLBI. The facility is equipped with two 120kV transmission electron microscopes, including one equipped for computed electron tomography, one scanning electron microscope, as well as the preparative equipment for most biological EM applications.
Valentina Baena, Ph.D., and Zulfeqhar Syed, Ph.D., Directors
Building 14E
Office / Room 111B
Monday - Friday
8:00 am - 4:30 pm
| Service | NHLBI Rate | non_NHLBI Rate | Subscriptions |
| Beam Time (Note: beam time is not included in procedures listed below) | $3,300/lab | ||
| Users | $55/hr | $120/hr | Unlimited lab use |
| EM Core Staff | $100/hr | $230/hr | Training and trained users |
| TEM | $8,800/lab | ||
| Fixation (EM Core Staff assistance with harvesting and fixation) | $55/experiment | $120/experiment | Beam Time Subscription Fee |
| Sample Prep for resin embedded samples - Processing, sectioning, staining | $200/sample | $460/sample | |
| (tissue, cell pellets, tissue culture slides) bench or Microwave Processing | $11,000/lab | ||
| Fixation and sample processing through solutions to polymerized resin by staff | $100/sample | $230/sample | Unlimited beam time |
| Fixation and sample processing through solutions to polymerized resin by user | $50/sample | $100/sample | Training and trained users |
| Sectioning and Staining for resin embedded samples (5 grids) by staff | $100/sample | $230/sample | |
| Sectioning and Staining for resin embedded samples (5 grids) by user | $50/sample | $100/sample | $ 40 / hrs |
| Sample Prep for fixed, frozen samples-processing, sectioning | $300/sample | $690/sample | NHLBI 3D FIB Acquisition Fee** |
| Negative Staining of Grids by EM Core Staff | $60/5 grids | $125/5 grids | ** w/o Sample Prep for Serial Block Face SEM |
| Immunolabeling of resin sections or cryosections by staff | $120/Ab | $250/Ab | |
| Immunolabeling of resin sections or cryosections by user | $60/Ab | $110/Ab | |
| High-Pressure Freezing of samples (3 replicates) | $120 | $276 | |
| Freeze Substitution | $250/run | $575/run | |
| SEM | |||
| Sample Prep for SEM Imaging (fix, dehydrate, CPD, mounting, sputter coating) by staff | $250/CPD capacity | $400/CPD capacity | |
| Sample Prep for SEM Imaging by User | $100/CPD capacity | $200/CPD capacity | |
| Sample Prep for Serial Block Face SEM | $300/sample | $690/sample | |
| Procedures to be offered* | |||
| Rotary Shadowing of molecules (spray sample prep, replica lifting) | $150/run | $345/run | |
| Freeze Fracture/ Freeze Etching (freezing, etching, coating, replica lifting) | $250/run | $575/run | |
| Tomography (Image stack processing) | $150/hr | $345/hr | |
| Cytoskeleton/Cell Unroofing | $200/sample | $460/sample | |
| Sample Prep for Cytoskeleton/Cell Unroofing by user | $100/expt | $200/expt | |
| Silver Enhancement for Nanogold Immunolabeling by staff | $150/expt | $345/expt | |
| Silver Enhancement for Nanogold Immunolabeling by user | $75/expt | $150/expt | |
| * not currently offered |
There are no charges for consultation with NHLBI and NIDDK PIs to help design and plan experiments for use in the NHLBI EM Core.
All other consultation activities will be billed at a rate of $125/hr. Any appointment missed, late cancelled, or changed without 24-hour notice will result in a charge equal to the above-mentioned rate.
Therefore, we respectfully request at least 24-hour notice for cancellations or rescheduling of appointments.
All manuscripts containing data resulting from the use of this core must acknowledge the core in the acknowledgements section of the manuscript, or when appropriate, include core members as co-authors.
