Focused Ion Beam milling and Scanning Electron Microscopy Facility

The combination of focused ion beam (FIB) milling and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is a method that permits the rapid and automatic serial reconstruction of large tissue volumes. The FIB-SEM facility — located at the Centro de Tecnología Biomédica (Laboratorio Cajal de Circuitos Corticales, UPM/CSIC, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) — is intended to be a leading centre for detailed synapse studies using 3D electron microscopy and for the generation of high-resolution images of brain regions in the millimetre to nanometre range.  

This FIB-SEM facility is associated with high-level scientific and technical staff who will provide the necessary expertise in electron microscopy to ensure that any scientist can benefit from this facility, regardless of whether or not they have experience in electron microscopy. The FIB-SEM facility is intended to be a leading center for (i) the generation of detailed structural data and (ii) the development of new techniques and strategies for studying the micro organization of the nervous system, including the human brain. The rationale for the creation of the facility is to open up a technology that is of great importance for unraveling the organization of the brain since, in general, this technology is currently only available for use to a limited extent due to funding, technical and scientific expertise requirements. Indeed, although the high costs involved in acquiring and maintaining such a facility represent one of the major limitations, the most important limitation is that highly qualified technical and scientific expertise are required to run it. Thus, in practice, the use of this technology is restricted to very few laboratories and centers of neuroscience worldwide. Our goal is to make it accessible to any laboratory with a scientific project for which this technology would be beneficial.