Using the existing facility for tomographic three-dimensional reconstruction and the Albany high voltage electron microscope (HVEM) Biotechnology Resource, a number of in house projects involving structures related to cell motility and mitosis (cilia basal body, centriole, kinetochore) will be investigated at a resolution approaching 5 nm. In addition, outside collaborations will be pursued on systems that pose difficult questions concerning shape and 3-D connectivity of structural components. In HVEM tomography, thick sections of plastic embedded biological material are tilted with a precision goniometer. The projections collected on the photographic film re scanned and combined by the computer into a three-dimensional representation of the object. The facility will be further developed to simplify and increase the efficiency of scanning, alignment and data processing, and to achieve the highest, most isotropic resolution possible. To this end, conical data collection, the use of Boolean object modelling, and various restoration schemes will be explored.
