title: Choice and maintenance of equipment for electron crystallography.
abstract: The choice of equipment for an electron crystallography laboratory will ultimately be determined by the available budget; nevertheless, the ideal lab will have two electron microscopes: a dedicated 300 kV cryo-EM with a field emission gun and a smaller LaB(6) machine for screening. The high-end machine should be equipped with photographic film or a very large CCD or CMOS camera for 2D crystal data collection; the screening microscope needs a mid-size CCD for rapid evaluation of crystal samples. The microscope room installations should provide adequate space and a special environment that puts no restrictions on the collection of high-resolution data. Equipment for specimen preparation includes a carbon coater, glow discharge unit, light microscope, plunge freezer, and liquid nitrogen containers and storage dewars. When photographic film is to be used, additional requirements are a film desiccator, dark room, optical diffractometer, and a film scanner. Having the electron microscopes and ancillary equipment well maintained and always in optimum condition facilitates the production of high-quality data.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute of Biophysics, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors.forename: Deryck J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mills
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Vonck
mesh_terms: D020285:Cryoelectron Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003461:Crystallography / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004780:Environment, Controlled; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation; D007753:Laboratories / Q000592:standards; D011786:Quality Control; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000295:instrumentation