Environmental Scanning Electron Microscope

• Subject Area: Medicine
• Term: Funded in 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 495328185

The Electron Microscopy Facility at the University Hospital of RWTH Aachen applies for an environmental scanning electron microscope for research. The Electron Microscopy Facility is a central facility of the Medical Faculty of the RWTH Aachen University under the direction of the Institute of Pathology. Besides our research especially in the field of methodological developments as well as applied research especially in the field of nephropathology, our facility supports research groups in performing electron microscopic investigations by numerous close collaborations or service work. The currently existing environmental scanning electron microscope has already reached the age of 19 years and is outside the spare parts and service warranty of the manufacturer. To be able to guarantee scanning electron microscope images for research in the future, the Electron Microscopy Facility needs a replacement device.The samples to be examined by scanning electron microscope are very variable due to the broad spectrum of medical research at our university hospital. Predominantly, they are organic hydrated materials such as tissues, cells, bacteria, and hydrogels. Hard tissue materials such as bone and teeth are also analyzed, as well as biomedical materials such as metallic scaffolds, implants, nanoparticles, and plastics. To accommodate this range of samples, the scanning electron microscope needs an environmental system for artifact-reduced imaging of uncoated and wet samples, an EDX detector system to measure element distributions for bone density measurements and particle detection, for example, and a sufficiently large sample chamber for larger samples from the field of implantology. In addition to these functions, the device is also expected to offer new possibilities and thus expand the range of methods available at the facility. For example, the device should enable the technique of array tomography, which can be used to generate 3-dimensional reconstructions of serial sections. In addition, the instrument will be equipped with a microprobe, which will allow sample manipulation inside the instrument and measurement of compressive and tensile forces on the samples. With this equipment, our facility will be able to optimally support medical research at the University Hospital with scanning electron microscopy examinations in the future.

• DFG Programme: Major Research Instrumentation
• Major Instrumentation: Niederdruck-Rasterelektronenmikroskop
• Instrumentation Group: 5120 Rasterelektronenmikroskope (REM)
• Applicant Institution: Rheinisch-Westfälische Technische Hochschule Aachen
• Leader: Professor Dr. Peter Boor, Ph.D.