Talos Arctica Cryo-EM + Gatan K3 Direct Electron Detector

The Talos Arctica Cryo-EM is a 200 kV cryo-capable transmission electron microscope. It is equipped with a field emission gun (FEG) source, and a https://www.gatan.com/K3. This instrument is capable of generating high resolution (> 3 Å) 3D structures of proteins, protein complexes, and other macromolecules. 

Tecnai Spirit TEM + Gatan UltraScan 1000 XP

The Tecnai Spirit TEM is an easy  to use 20 kV to 120 kV transmission electron microscope (TEM)  designed to provide high-contrast, high-resolution imaging and analysis. Accelerating voltages ranging from 20 kV to 120 kV are ideal for light element biological matrices and provide the low voltage capability.

Vitrobot Mk. IV

 The Vitrobot Mark IV System is a state-of-the-art specimen preparation unit that offers great value to the demanding scientific areas of cell biology and molecular imaging as well as being very suitable for food, industrial, pharmaceutical and nanotechnological applications—where the true colloidal structure needs to be viewed.

 

Reservations

Talos Arctica

We are currently allotting 24 hours, Mondays at 12:00 PM to Tuesdays at 12:00 PM, for screening time. Screening time is intended to provide a reliable weekly opportunity for groups to spend a 2-3 hours at the Arctica examining the quality of their samples. Grids that are loaded into the microscope during screening time will be removed Tuesday at 12:00, and should be assumed to be unrecoverable. Please send screening requests to cryo-em_facility@montana.edu by end-of-day Thursday, the week before.

For longer data collections, please make a reservation. Reservations can be made from Tuesday at ~12:00 to Sunday at ~midnight. Please note, users whose data collections end on a weekend will be responsible for cryo-cycling the microscope at whatever time their data collection ends.

Please note: both screening requests and reservations are not necessarily first-come first-serve - effort will be made to balance access to all necessary groups, as well as accommodate external and commercial users, users who have traveled to the facility, and so forth. For further details, or exceptional circumstances, please reach out by email. 

 

Tecnai Spirit

Tecnai Spirit scheduling can be done on-demand by pre-authorized users with no interaction or approval required, provided the instrument is free. However, if reservering for time less than 48 hours from the point of reservation, please contact the facility to confirm the microscope is actually free. For non-authorized users, please contact the facility for initial training first.

 

Vitrobot

The Vitrobot scheduling can be done on-demand by pre-authorized users with no interaction or approval required, provided the instrument is free. Please reserve a minimum of two hours per freezing session. For lots of grids, please request more time. For non-authorized users, please contact the faciliity for intial training first.

Scheduling Time

Currently, sharing calendars as a link is not operational. Unfortunately, users must log in to Outlook Web with their MSU credentials, and manually add the calendars for the instruments:

How to add a calendar in Outlook web

To schedule time on an instrument, create a new event on your own calendar, and add the instrument as the location:

How to add an event