New Ion Beam Thinner in the Materials Specimen Preparation Area

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1 New Gentle Mill Prize for Outstanding General Staff Mentor Award for EMU User Timetable Update Postgraduate Degrees at the EMU Overseas Student Kristina Jahn New Ion Beam Thinner in the Materials Specimen Preparation Area The materials specimen preparation laboratory purchased a new generation ion beam thinner (Gentle Mill) that meets modern standards for controlled sample preparation. Ion beam thinning is an important technique for thinning material and mineral samples for transmission electron microscopy. Normally the sample is placed in a vacuum chamber and thinned by sputtering from both sides with ion beams. The typical rate is several micrometres per hour. The major advantage of this next-generation instrument is that it uses a low energy ion gun that results in a specimen (almost) devoid of any preparation artefacts during milling. Typical operation settings are between 0.1 to 2.0 kv for the ion energy applied and 7 to 90 ma for the ion current. Ion milling with PIPS. For more information, contact: Adam Sikorski Tel adam.sikorski@emu.usyd.edu.au Ion milling with the Gentle Mill.

2 2006 Prize for Outstanding General Staff Mentor From Prof. Simon Ringer I am delighted to announce that Rosie Hicks has been awarded the 2006 Prize for Outstanding General Staff Mentor for the University of Sydney s College of Sciences & Technology. This is a great credit to Rosie and an area that I regard as very important. Indeed, not enough prioritisation goes into the approach to mentoring, which all staff at all levels need. Prof. Hesketh s prize in this area is a very welcome initiative to add impetus to this aspect of our work. I do believe that there is a mentoring role for each and all of us and would welcome more discussion on this topic. Rosie was presented with her award at the March 30 meeting of the College Deans. Notwithstanding the presentation of this award, that was quite an auspicious occasion, as it was the Dual labeling of blood vessels and pericytes in wound tissue: Blood vessels in 50um cryosection of rat skin wound were identified by dual labeling with anti-cd31 ( BD) and anti NG2 (Abcam) antibodies and visualised with Alexa Fluor 594 chicken anti-mouse (red) and Alexa Fluor 488 goat antimouse IgM (green) respectively. The University of Sydney s Pro-Vice Chancellor (CST) Prof. Beryl Hesketh and Rosie Hicks. last ever CST Deans meeting, given the recent University restructure! Rosie from all of your colleagues in NANO and here in Sydney, a very big congratulations and well done. On behalf of all of us, not just those in the business & administration team, we are all so grateful to learn from you and to have your mentoring as a guide for achieving our personal and organisational goals. Congrats! Award for EMU User Dr Savita Kurup (Endocrinology Departement, University of Sydney) is a current user of the light & laser optics area of our Unit and was awarded 200 Euros worth of Invitrogen products and an Invitrogen T-shirt for the use of her photo. 2

3 Short Training Course Program 2006: Timetable Update The Short Training Course program at EMU provides an opportunity to learn theoretical and practical competencies to become independent operators of a wide variety of microscopes and microscopy techniques. Particularly popular are the introductory courses in specimen preparation for both biological and materials applications as well as the instrumentation courses for TEM, SEM and confocal microscopes. Full descriptions of course content, fees and enrolment details can be found on our website. Introductory Microscopy & Microanalysis Semester 2/2006: July 31-August 10 Biological Specimen Preparation, TEM & SEM Semester 2/2006: August Materials Specimen Preparation, TEM & SEM Semester 2/2006: August Fluorescence Microscopy Techniques Semester 2/2006: September For more information, contact: Anne Simpson Tel anne.simpson@emu.usyd.edu.au Light Microscope Workshop Semester 2/2006: September 25 Introduction to Confocal Microscopy Semester 2/2006: October 3-6 Operation of the Scanning Electron Microscope Semester 2/2006: September 4-8 Operation of the Transmission Electron Microscope Semester 2/2006: September Stereology Semester 2/2006: October Image Analysis Semester 2/2006: October TEM of Crystalline Materials Semester 2/2006: October

4 Postgraduate Degrees at the EMU Overseas Student Kristina Jahn Reports about her Research Project The EMU at the University of Sydney offers 1-year postgraduate degrees in Applied Science In February 2005, I selected the EMU as the (Microscopy & Microanalysis), including Master, ideal environment for the 9-month-long research Graduate Diploma or Graduate Certificate. Units project that is an essential part of my Nutrition of study (6 credit points) are completed during Science degree at the University of Hohenheim semester and enrolment may be fulltime or part- in Stuttgart. Since then, I have finished my ex- time. ams in Germany and then spent several weeks in Oxford to improve my language skills. Now, You can find more details on our Training site more than a year and a lot of paper work later, at or contact Lilian I am right in the middle of the most interesting Soon, the Unit s Postgraduate Coursework and exciting part of my studies, the research Coordinator. project! Dr Lilian Soon and A/Prof. Filip Braet have given me a great opportunity: I am working with them to study the possible effects of a cytoskeleton related protein, called N-WASP, on the organisation of the 10-nm-wide actin filaments at the EMU Newsletter May/June 2006 lamelipodia of metastatic breast-cancer cells. To observe the fine architecture of these small cytoskeletal structures, transmission electron Our 2005 ggraduates in Masters in Applied Science, Microscopy and Microanalysis: Sandra Fok (current EMU microscopy (TEM) of whole mounts is the method of choice (Fig. 1). In this method, cells PhD student funded by a NHMRC scholarship), Alex Wu are grown on TEM support grids coated with a (recipient of NANO scholar award), Jonathan Mak (Honours thin layer of plastic, which allows us to observe student at UTS), Chi Fung Lo (EMU PhD student). them as whole mounts without the need for More information, contact: sectioning. Dr Lilian Soon Tel lilian.soon@emu.usyd.edu.au Fig. 1: MTLn3 cancer cells grown on TEM supports, which were prepared for whole mount TEM investigation.

5 In a next part of my research project, we aim to develop a standardised protocol to crosscorrelate the information obtained by TEM with that from confocal microscopy of filamentous, actin-stained cancer cells (Fig. 2). This technique is known as correlative microscopy and will enable us to explore identical structures incorporating the same cell(s) with different resolution limits. I have learned a lot after being at the EMU for four months. Working at the Unit is a fantastic experience on all levels; it definitely has assisted me in deciding that I want to develop my career as a molecular microscopist. Fig. 2: MTLn3 cancer cells grown on nickel TEM grids, stained for DNA (blue) and filamentous actin (red), respectively. More information, contact: Kristina Jahn Tel kristina.jahn@emu.usyd.edu.au Editors A/Prof. Filip Braet Tel filip.braet@emu.usyd.edu.au Ms Ellie Kable Tel ellie.kable@emu.usyd.edu.au Ms Uli Eichhorn Tel uli.eichhorn@emu.usyd.edu.au The Electron Microscope Unit Nanostructural Analysis Network Organisation Major National Research Facility The University of Sydney NSW, 2006, Australia Tel Fax