Four state of the art microscopes are set to be installed in a new building that has been rapidly taking shape next to the synchrotron.The facility will house two high resolution cryo-electron microscopes for the life sciences and two high-resolution electron microscopes for advanced materials research. The microscopes will share space with the Hard X-ray Nanoprobe beamline (I14) in the new facility. Construction is on track for the building to be occupied from winter 2015 onwards.
Funded by a £15.6 million grant from the Wellcome Trust, the Medical Research Council (MRC), and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the new Bio-Imaging Centre (eBIC) is a collaboration between Diamond, Birkbeck College and Oxford University. It will operate 24/7 benefiting from Diamond’s experience running beamlines and, although not connected to the synchrotron light source, will provide scientists with state-of-the-art experimental equipment and expertise that will complement Diamond’s current capabilities. The powerful cryo-electron microscopes will help scientists to look into the structure of cells to reveal molecular make-up and will provide new tools to visualise single bio-molecules.
Figure 4: The Electron Microscopy facility and I14 building taking shape.
Diamond Light Source is the UK's national synchrotron science facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire.
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