Switzerland – Microscopes – Beschaffung eines cryo-konfokalen Fluoreszenzmikroskops

The IBMM wishes to procure a brand-new cryo-confocal fluorescence microscope (cryo-cFM) to be integrated into a cryo-CLEM workflow for cellular cryo-ET and in situ structural biology. The cryo-cFM must be equipped with at least 4 fluorescence channels (lasers) and feature a highly sensitive, high-resolution detector system for confocal microscopy. The microscope system must also allow switching between confocal and widefield fluorescence microscopy by being equipped with appropriate light sources, filters, and camera. Furthermore, it must be equipped with at least one cryo-compatible air objective with the highest possible numerical aperture and at least 50x magnification. Additionally, the cryo-cFM must have a cryo-stage that allows loading, imaging, and unloading of samples (cryo-EM grids with vitrified cells) at < -150°C without the samples ever being exposed to a higher temperature, and without the samples being significantly contaminated by condensing humidity. The cryo-stage must be compatible with common cryo-EM grids and so-called AutoGrids for the further cryo-CLEM steps. The motorized cryo-stage must be integrated into the user interface of the software for operating the cryo-cFM. This user interface should be as simple and efficient to use as possible; the entire microscope system must have complete, ready-to-use hardware and software. Particularly important are high imaging quality, robustness in retrieving the imaged samples without loss of quality for the next cryo-CLEM steps (cryo-FIB milling and cryo-ET), and user-friendliness.