JEOL JEM-1400 TEM

A new JEM-1400 transmission electron microscope from JEOL USA Inc. has been installed in the MRL facilities. The tool is located adjacent to both our Cryo-EM and to our Carver MRL BioMaker labs, providing support for processing and analysis of complex biological structures with ease-of-use operation. The instrument was purchased thanks to the generous financial support from the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust (Grant #22-5578, 10/22/2021).

The JEM-1400 uses a LaB₆ filament electron gun with acceleration up to 120 kV and is also capable of lowering it down to 40 kV if required (in order to minimize sample radiation where necessary). The tool is capable of a point-to-point resolution down to 0.38 nm and lattice imaging down to 0.2 nm.

A very important feature required for the analysis of complex biological structures is the capability of moving between low magnification / high field of view (> 1.5 inch diameter) to high magnification using the same high-performance camera without the need to change complex settings. The system includes a 12-megapixel (4096 x 3008 pixels of 6.8 microns area each) integrated fast (55 fps) camera covering a wide magnification range from 10x up to 1,200,000x (the AMT-NanoSprint 12L-B, CMOS sensor). This will provide an easy and fast way to locate overall areas of interest in cells, tissues, etc., and immediately use high magnification to focus analysis on specific small features. This provides an outstanding platform for introducing even novice students and researchers to the technique. The high contrast pole piece will facilitate imaging of soft materials with typical low contrasting features. The microscope computer control also includes a proprietary “Navigation Jenie” support software which guides users in routine and more complex operations via a touch screen. In addition to a high tilt sample holder (EM-21311 HTR) for various specimen sizes and tilts during the analysis, the system also includes a dual-axis high-precision sample holder (Fischione EAF-2040) with tilt +/- 70^o and in-plane 260^o rotation for room-temperature tomography studies with minimum drift (under 1.5 nm/min). Tomography analysis will be facilitated by using the “SerialEM” and “IMOD” software packages included in the system.