Research / Core Facilities / Imagopole / Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM)

Transmission Electron Microscopy

Definition


The Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) consists of placing a sufficiently thin sample in a beam of electrons, and uses a magnetic lens system for projecting the image of the sample onto a fluorescent screen. A CCD camera allows the acquisition of the digital image.

Within the PFMU, TEM is used to observe the ultrastructure of biological samples such as cells or bacteria but also the analysis of samples of less than 1μm like pilis or viruses.

In TEM, it is possible to perform immunolocalisation with colloidal gold in pre or post inclusion.
MMM
                                                          Ultrastructure of endothelial cells

                                                                            N : Nucleus
                                                                            M : Mitochondria
                                                                            MT : Microtubules
                                                                            REG : Endoplasmic Reticulum
                                                                            V : Villosity
The PFMU has four transmission electron microscopes to study at room temperature (JEOL 1010, 1200EX and Philips CM10, CM12) and a transmission cryomicroscopy for low temperature observations (JEOL 2010).