Practical Course

European Molecular Biology Organization

 

Electron microscopy &

stereology in cell biology

 

 

 

 

 



17 - 27 June| 2010 |Oslo| Norway

Programme (preliminary)

 

 

 

L = lecture     P = practicals     D = demonstration    E = theoretical exercise

 

 

Day 1

 

15:30

Student presentations; 7 min each

20:00

Get-Together of Students and Teachers; Welcome party

 

 

Day 2

 

09:00

Introduction (L)

09:15

Overview of course techniques (L)

09:45

Principles of transmission electron microscopy (L)

10:30

Break

11:00

Chemical fixation (L)

12:00

Lunch

13:00

Introduction to plastic embedding and sectioning (L)

14:00

Introduction to cryo sectioning (L)

16:00

Introduction and practical details of immunolabelling (L)

17:00

Split students into small groups and rotate the groups between the different labstations

(lab-tour, TEM, cryo-ultramicrotomes, ultramicrotomes, microwave, knife-makers, freeze-substitution)

15 min at each station (D)

19:30

Dinner followed by informal poster session

 

 

Day 3

 

09:00

Vitrification of water (L)

10:00

Sampling, rapid freezing and cryoprocessing (L)

 

(high pressure freezing and freeze substitution)

10:45

Break

11:15

Colloidal gold and its applications (L)

12:00

Split students into Groups A and B (10 in each)

 

Group A – Cryo sectioning/labelling

 

Group B – Plastic embedding/sectioning/negative staining

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Practicals (open end)

 

 

Day 4

 

09:00

Theory and pitfalls of immunolabelling (L)

09:45

Correlation between EM and Light microscopy (L)

10:30

Break

11:00

Collodial gold particle labelling for EM (L)

11:45

Counting gold particles and relating them to cell compartments (L)

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Practicals

19:30

Social event

 

 

Day 5

 

09:00

Latest developments in cryo sectioning (L)

09:45

Interpretation in EM (L)

10:30

Break

11:00

General discussion and rotation of groups A and B

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Practicals (open end)

 

 

Day 6

 

09:00

Quantitative TEM (stereological tools) (L)

10:00

Break

10:30

New methods for quantifying gold labelling (L)

11:30

Numbers, length, areas (E)

12.30

Lunch

13:30

Quantification of colloidal gold (E)

 

Touring Oslo in the afternoon

 

 

Day 7

 

09:00

EM tomography

10:45

Cryo EM and high resolution tomography

11:30

Break

12:30

General Discussion

14:30

Practicals (open end)

 

 

Day 8

 

09:00

Practicals

12:30

Lunch

13:30

Practicals

19:00

Farewell party

 

 

Day 9

 

09:00

Practicals

13:00

Lunch

14:00

Final Discussion

15:00

Some departures

 

 

 

 

Day 10

 

 

Some more departures

 

 

 

 

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