Bioimaging

The facility is equipped with instrumentation for both light and electron microscopy.

Facility staff provide full training and technical support to suit your needs. From total beginners to those who are more experienced. Training is normally provided 1-to-1 at the instruments. Small groups with similar requirements can be accommodated on request. 

We specialise in the imaging of plants and fungi but can also cater for a wide-range of imaging requirements for insect and animal cells. We offer advice on choice of techniques, experimental design, image interpretation and image analysis. The bioimaging facilities can be used in two ways:

• Use-it-yourself – once you are fully trained you can use the imaging facilities with ongoing technical support.
• Full service – our highly-skilled staff can provide for your imaging needs, with the emphasis on collaborative projects.

We provide:

• Routine sample preparation service, such as embedding and sectioning.
• Many specialised techniques and bespoke services.
• Various types of fixed cell imaging.
• Dedicated data analysis workstations – you can analyse your data in-house.
• Advice on techniques and appropriate equipment to aid your research.

If a specialist technique or our extensive input is required we encourage collaboration, often resulting in a joint publication.

The bioimaging facility primarily supports the microscopy needs of Kew Science but is available to external customers, both academic and industrial.
 

Sample preparation

SEM sample preparation

Sputter coater
A Quorum dual coater high resolution sputter-coater for use with our field emission SEM. Targets routinely available are Au or Pt. Can be configured for carbon evaporation.

Critical Point dryer
An Autosamdri 815B automatic critical point dryer is used for drying chemically fixed samples for the SEM. 

Sectioning facilities

Reichert and RMC ultramicrotomes, conventional and cryo, for ultra-thin and semi-thin resin sectioning for both light and electron microscopy applications. We have a knife-maker (Leica KMR3) for preparing glass knives, a Leica EM Trim pyramitome for shaping resin blocks, hot-plates for drying slides, and light microscopes for checking sections, alongside a slide-staining area.

Leica Autocut RM 2155 semi-automatic rotary microtome (for wax or resin) and a Reichert-Jung rotary microtome for wax sectioning.

Thermo Fisher cryostat for cutting frozen sections, all for light microscopy applications.

Sliding, sledge and cryo microtomes. Automatic knife sharpeners for tungsten steel knives.

High pressure freezer and freeze substitution unit

A Leica EM Ice high-pressure freezer, with 3mm and 6mm carriers, used for freezing very small samples at pressures of ~2000 bar, to prevent ice-crystal growth. Sample size is extremely limited, but it can provide the best method for membrane-preservation. Due to the challenging nature of this technology, it requires technical assistance.

The Leica AFS2 for freeze substitution machine is generally used after high-pressure freezing but can also be used for the PLT embedding method (progressively lowering temperature). Both these methods have been shown to help retain antigenicity and are therefore used when immuno-gold labelling studies are required for TEM.

Tissue processor
The Leica TP1020 benchtop tissue processor is used for automatically performing tissue dehydration and infiltration with wax solvents prior to wax embedding. 

Slide stainer
The Leica ST5010 Autostainer XL will automatically follow a pre-programmed staining protocol, staining up to 30 slides at a time. Routinely used with serially sectioned wax embedded material.