Scientists unlock new horizons for cryogenic microscopy

From the left to the right:Anders Meibom,Florent Plane,Stéphane Escrig. EPFL/A.Herzog Scientists have developed a new research instrument for observing biological tissue samples prepared using a method discovered about forty years ago by Nobel Prize winner Jacques Dubochet, emeritus professor at the University of Lausanne. Their instrument - the only one of its kind in the world - opens up promising new avenues of research. It took Prof. Anders Meibom and his research group almost 10 years and several prototypes before they finally made it. They have now succeeded in enhancing an analysis method known as nanoscale secondary ion mass spectrometry (NanoSIMS) by building a CryoNanoSIMS machine - an instrument that can analyze the chemical and isotopic composition of vitrified tissue samples. The sample preparation process they used was developed in the 1980s by the well-known Vaud biophysicist Jacques Dubochet - who won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for that breakthrough. That process, which forms the basis of modern cryogenic electron microscopy, preserves all constituents of a biological sample in their most pristine post-mortem state.