Microscope? Sorry: Nanoscope!
Dutch Life Science researchers join forces to procure the newest and most powerful electron microscope in existence. It will be located in Leiden, but can be operated remotely.
Ribosomes made visible in a cell. Photo courtesy of Professor P Peters (NKI, TUD)
Aberrations to cells of blood vessels in cardiac disease, mechanisms of infection by pathogens, molecular processes that form the root cause of cancer and the interactions of drugs with their protein targets: all these phenomena can be examined using the newest electron microscopes.
National Centre for Nanoscopy
This new equipment costs millions of euros. Ten Dutch universities and research institutes have therefore combined forces in a national centre for nanoscopy, the Netherlands Centre for Electron Nanoscopy (NeCEN). The consortium members will use state-of-the-art electron microscopes to study the molecular building blocks of life.
NWO subsidy
The funding for the first new electron microscope for the NeCEN – 6.1 million euro – is in place. The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) honoured the subsidy application submitted by NeCEN to the so-called Investment Subsidy NWO Large fund, intended for advanced scientific infrastructure.
Cell observatory
NeCEN will be housed in Leiden University’s Cell Observatory, at the invitation of Medical Delta, the partnership in the field of medical-technological research. The knowledge institutions participating in this collaboration are Leiden University, the LUMC, the TU Delft, the EMC Rotterdam and the EUR. This Cell Observatory is also where the new electron microscope, the first of three, will be located. The Medical Delta municipalities and the province of South Holland have also invested heavily, both financially and materially, in the project.
Remote operation
This first piece of equipment will be a transmission electron microscope with all the latest devices. Not only can you observe things in greater detail than with the microscopes that are currently available in the Netherlands, but it can also operate independently and – equally important – has to be capable of being operated remotely from Groningen or Eindhoven just as easily as from Leiden.
Flexplaces
Flexplaces and other facilities will be made available in Leiden for visiting researchers. The expectation is that the new centre will attract researchers and that the combination of equipment and talent will lead to scientific breakthroughs. Biopharmaceutical companies have already indicated their interest.
Electron microscopy
Electron microscopes fire fast electrons instead of light through the specimen. As electrons have a much smaller wavelength than light, a more detailed image can be produced. Biological specimens in particular can easily be damaged by the electrons and can therefore only be irradiated for a limited amount of time before undergoing a change of structure. Although this change in structure is reduced if the specimen is frozen to very low temperatures, it is still only possible to make brief, ‘underexposed’ images. To make a three-dimensional image, the specimen also has to be irradiated from many different angles.
Molecular structures in intact cells
It takes a lot of images and extensive processing with very powerful computers before a clear picture can be obtained of the three-dimensional structures of the molecules of life. Using the most modern electron microscopes, it is even possible to make these molecular structures visible in intact cells.
Therapeutic applications
When pathological processes can be understood to this level of detail, therapeutic applications are not far behind. It is for this reason that Medical Data, a collaboration in the field of medical research with Leiden University, the LUMC, the TU Delft and the EMC Rotterdam as partners, proposed locating the new centre in Leiden University’s Cell laboratory.
NeCEN
NeCEN’s express intention is to be a national facility. The present partners in NeCEN are Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), the TU Delft, the Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam’s Erasmus University, the University of Utrecht, the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, the Netherlands Cancer Institute, FOM/AMOLF and the TU Eindhoven.