Location: Basement (Room B04), Queen Square House.
The facilities of this inter-departmental Unit are shared with the Institute of Child Health, Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children and the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery.
The Unit offers comprehensive facilities for specimen preparation and use of Transmission and Scanning Electron Microscopes.
A full technical service is provided for non-EM users from Departments within the host Institutions and from outside.
The Electron Microscope Suite houses the Jeol 1200EX and Jeol 120CX Transmission Electron Microscopes, the Philips CM10 Transmission Electron Microscope and the JSM35 Scanning Electron Microscope. In addition, the adjacent Preparation Laboratory Area provides several ultramicrotome bays and work areas. Lynx automated tissue processors and two recently acquired Reichert-Leica AFS systems are available for the preparation of samples for TEM and SEM examination.
The Unit is equipped with SIS Olympus digital cameras.
Contact: Kerrie Venner, Technical Manager
Telephone: 020 344 84287
Email: k.venner@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Mike Groves, Biomedical Scientist
Telephone: 020 344 84220
Email: m.groves@ucl.ac.uk / michael.groves@uclh.nhs.uk
Examples of specimen preparations in our EM Unit
Peripheral nerve; semi thin resin section, MBA-BF stain

Peripheral nerve: teased fibre preparation

Peripheral nerve: Electron microscopy; widely spaced myelin)
Price List
Transmission Electron Microscopy sample preparation charges, includes one hour EM time per sample | |
Standard machine processing into resin, per run | £40 |
Hand processing into resin, per run | £100 |
Preparation of semi thin section, each block | £30 |
Preparation of set of stained grids, each block | £45 |
Scanning Electron Microscopy sample preparation charges, includes one hour EM time per sample | |
Machine processing of sample, critical point drying (including consumables and 2 hours SEM examination time), sputter coating with gold | £180 |
With Osmium thiocarbohydrazide treatment | £200 |
Additional time on TEM or SEM and use of ancillary preparation equipment (VAT free) | |
Per hour | £40 |
Per day | £300 |
Per half day | £150 |
Tuition on TEM and SEM and Processing methods | |
Per hour | £35 |
Examination of grids by us | |
Per hour | £65 |
Nerve teasing | |
Per specimen | £65 |
Morphometry | |
Per hour | £48 |
Other technical procedures, such as dissection | |
Per hour | £35 |