EMU-PMP: Acquisition of equipments for the ICB Microscopy Center & Histological Techniques Sector

• Grant number: 23/17302-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Small Medium Sized
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Morphology - Cytology and Cell Biology
• Principal Investigator: Ruy Gastaldoni Jaeger
• Grantee: Ruy Gastaldoni Jaeger
• Host Institution: Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas (ICB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Estela Maris Andrade Forell Bevilacqua ; José Roberto Machado Cunha da Silva ; Vanessa Morais Freitas

Abstract

The ICB Microscopy Center is a facility that serves the entire scientific community, helping to obtain images of the most diverse samples and morphological analyses. The Center was cataloged in 2021 on the USP Multi Platform of the Dean of Research and Innovation at USP, but before that it already had a tradition of serving the scientific community, as electron microscopes had been available since 1996. In these 27 years, the facility has served hundreds of research projects from ICB, USP and outside the University (Instituto Butantan, IPEN, Federal Universities, AC Camargo Cancer Center). The Center is located on the ground floor of ICB I and has an area of 200 square meters divided into 5 rooms. The facility has a technician dedicated to electron microscopes, technician Roberto Cabado. This technician has more than 20 years of experience in instrumenting microscopes at ICB. The facility operates from Tuesday to Friday from 8:30 am to 4:00 pm, offering 2 periods of 3 hours per day with an open schedule for the general public. The Center can be accessed at USP Multi. In the last 6 months, there were 63 appointments at TECNAI G20, with 69.82% of appointments coming from ICB professors (19.04% Department of Cellular and Developmental Biology, 41.26% Department of Microbiology and 9.52% Department of Anatomy), 11.11% of appointments were from IPEN and 19.04% from researchers from IQ-USP. MET TECNAI needs to replace your permanently damaged camera. The camera chosen was EMSIS Tolara 6 megapixel TEM Camera, 6 megapixel high resolution camera mounted on the microscope base, suitable for applications in biological and materials sciences. The second piece of equipment for the Microscopy Center is the Phenom Pharos G2, a benchtop scanning electron microscope equipped with an FEG (Field Emission Gun) electron source. Includes a backscattered electron (BSE) detector for acquiring sample contrast information and Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDX) that allows detection of elements B to Cf including Element Identification (EID) software for automatic signal analysis, issuance of a report with percentage information of the identified elements (weight) and EDX mapping. It is worth mentioning that there is no scanning microscope at the Institute of Biomedical Sciences, the one that existed stopped working more than 20 years ago. This equipment will serve different projects at ICB, USP and abroad.In addition to equipment for the ICB Microscopy Center, equipment for preparing histological samples is also requested. The histological techniques sector provides processing, paraffin embedding, microtomy, different staining and cover slip mounting services. Samples for transmission electron microscopy are also processed in this sector. In the tissue processor requested in this proposal, Epredia model Excelsior AS, the reagents are not manipulated since the xylol container itself coming from the manufacturer is coupled to the equipment without the need to pour the liquid into the equipment (a maneuver that generates splashes, elimination of vapors and possibility of accidents), in addition, when opening the chamber, there is a negative ventilation system that prevents gases from escaping into the environment and finally, the processor has carbon filters as another layer of safety for the instrument technician. The second equipment requested for the Techniques Sector is a Leica brand glass slide assembler for histology and cytology that can be coupled to the Autostainer of the same brand that already exists in the Sector. This equipment will speed up the service, enabling the expansion of service provision to users. (AU)