Detachable Nozzle Piezoelectric Dispense System for Cryo-TEM Sample Preparation

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary / Abstract Engineering Arts (EA) proposes the development of a detachable nozzle piezoelectric dispense system for use in Cryo-TEM (Cold - Transmission Electron Microscopy) sample preparation instrumentation. Cryo-TEM is an important tool for studying the structure of biological macromolecules in their native aqueous state. The challenging and laborious process of preparing 'thin-ice' frozen aqueous samples for Cryo-TEM has remained essentially unchangedfor decades. Typically a single aqueous biological sample (~3 l) is manually applied onto a thin porous Electron Microscopy (EM) grid which is then blotted to remove excess sample and then plunged into liquid-ethane for flash freezing. This process hopefully leaves enough regions on the grid with the proper vitrified 'thin-ice', typically 50 to 200nm thickness, required for EM imaging. The detachable piezoelectric nozzle dispense system proposed here is a key innovation that will lead to productivity,