Bill Granath - EM Facility Director

Welcome to the first issue of our newsletter!  Lots of new and exciting events are happening in the Electron Microscopy (EM) Facility and we will be posting them in this quarterly publication.  As many of you know, the EM Facility was partially supported by the Montana INBRE (Idea Networks of Biomedical Research Excellence) which is funded by the National Center for Research Resources of the National Institutes of Health.  We are delighted to once again be part of the next round of the Montana INBRE (INBRE II) which began its first year of 5 years of funding on May 1, 2009.  As many of you know, what makes our facility unique is that the electron microscopes can be accessed remotely from a user’s desktop computer.  Therefore, electron microscopy can be done in the classroom or in the comfort of a researcher’s office.  For a further description of this remote access feature (”EM Anywhere”) please see the “Services” page on our website.

Throughout the coming years we hope to increase our collaborations with K-12 teachers, so if you are interested in this exciting program please contact me,  or the Associate Director of the lab, Dr. Jim Driver .  We are also producing interactive microscopy demonstrations designed to give perspective on size and scale.  We hope these will be informative and that teachers will be able to use them in their classroom.  Some of these demonstrations have been completed and are available on our website;  more will be added in the future.  Please give us your feedback and recommendations for samples you would like to see included.  To view the current selection of demonstrations, visit our website and click on the “Imagery” tab where you can access our virtual microscope.

Also on the horizon is the possibility of a new EM Facility.  If successful, current funding attempts would complete a spacious laboratory in the basement of the new Integrative Sciences Building on the campus of the University of Montana - Missoula.  The new lab would triple our space and allow for more hands-on demonstrations and workshops.

Finally, if we can help you out in the classroom or with your research project, or if you just want to get a little more information about what we do (and what we may be able to do for you), please contact me or Jim Driver.  I hope you all have a wonderful and productive summer!

Sincerely,

Bill