The goal of the Electron Microscopy Core is to enhance our understanding of the processes whereby auditory and vestibular sensory systems develop, function, and recover after trauma. The longer-term goals of the Electron Microscopy Core are to promote multi-investigator collaborations, encourage multidisciplinary approaches to current research problems, and stimulate new research approaches and directions. As part of the Fay and Carl Simons Center for Biology of Hearing and Deafness at the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID), this core facility will act as a central resource for scientists addressing questions that involve scanning and transmission electron microscopy and plastic sectioning for high-resolution light microscopy. Toward this end, the Electron Microscopy Core provides maintenance of equipment, including scanning and transmission electron microscopes, ultramicrotomes, and darkroom facilities. Members of the Inner Ear Consortium have full access to all core equipment. The Core also provides support and technical services, and training necessary to carry out this research. The Core staff brings considerable expertise to ensure high quality technical services with priority given to scientists with external grant support, multi-investigator pilot projects, and scientists who do not normally use electron microscopy in their research programs. These services include tissue processing and plastic embedding, tissue preparation for scanning electron microscopy, sectioning of plastic embedded tissue for light and electron microscopy, transmission and scanning electron microscopy, interpretation of images, and photographic processing. Training is primarily done through one-on-one interactions. Workshops will be held jointly with the Digital Imaging Core and a journal club will focus on current methodological issues and their application to research in sensory development, degeneration, and regeneration. The Electron Microscopy Core interacts extensively with the Digital Imaging Core for the processing of digital images captured from the electron microscopes, with the Gene Expression Core for immunoelectron microscopical studies, and with the Electronics Services Core for the maintenance and repair of small equipment.
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