Current news from IMRI facilities
//Hi, Facility users,
My vacation is from June 26 to July 18. You may email me during my vacation, but my response might be delayed because of limited access to my email in China. For urgent facility issues, please contact Dr. Porter for Zeiss center business and Mr. Minje Sun for MC2 business. Good luck!
//The Carl Zeiss Company will be removing their UltraPlus for a nominal eight weeks. The latest removal date is May 24.
Also, Zeiss training courses scheduled for September at UCI appear to have been cancelled and are no longer appearing on the Zeiss web-site.
//Hello All,
As described on the LEXI website (also stated on the Reservation Policy for the Zeiss Center):
“A reservation cancelled within 24 hours will be charged at 50%.”
This means that a reservation may be edited and cancelled without penalty up to 24 hours prior to the reservation start time.
If you do not utilize the reserved instrument during your reservation and you were not able to cancel the reservation 24 hours prior, you will be billed for the reservation time at half rate (hours reserved*50% rate).
This policy is nothing new, as it has been in effect since August 2009 but not enforced due limitations in the calendar software. Calendar upgrades now prohibit reservation event changes or cancellations attempted within 24 hours of the reservation.
Questions? Feel free to email us.
//XL30 SEM in MC2 was shut down suddenly. Later it was found that a user changed room temperature setting from 70 degree to 80 degree, which caused the problem (no user should change any room temperature setting). I have made a service call to FEI. Waiting for a service now. More updates will be placed in comments.
//While I am away from April 5th to 16th, Mai Ng will be available to help with training. However, she will only be available on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Please contact Mai for an appointment at mai.ng@uci.edu.
For emergency support, Mai can be contacted by phone – cell phone number in lab.
//TEM double tilt sample holder needs repair because its age. I need to buy some parts and try to fix it by myself. Before this is done, please use the single tilt specimen holder. I have left an instruction for the single tilt holder operation on the table. Please let me know if you have any questions.
//The XRD stage was stuck. Bruker engineer has been contacted. Waiting for response…New updates will be posted as comments.
//
Congratulations to Mercè Dalmau (Prof. Szu-Wen Wang’s group). She published a paper “pH-Triggered Disassembly in a Caged Protein Complex” in Biomacromolecules in Oct 2009 (vol 10, iss 12, p3199-3206), where MC2 CM-20 TEM was used to reveal the structure and disassembly of the caged protein complex (see figures above). The results are significant progress toward the use of the caged protein complex as a drug delivery vehicle. This paper and related TEM images have been featured recently in “Research Highlights” of Biopolymers (Vol. 93, no. 2, 2010).
This has been her third paper since Dec 2008. Other two papers are “Thermostability and Molecular Encapsulation within an Engineered Caged Protein Scaffold” published in Biotechnology and Bioengineering in Oct 2008 (vol 101, iss 4, p554-664) and “Design of a pH-Dependent Molecular Switch in a Caged Protein Platform” in Nano Letters in Jan 2009 (vol 9, iss 1, p160-166). The former was highlighted in B&B’s “Spotlight” Feature and TEM images were selected as cover photo in December 2008 (see picture below).
It is a great achievement to publish three high quality papers in such a short period of time!
//An ODP problem was reported this afternoon. I will contact service engineer on Monday
//Our EBSD camera is back from repair and will be reinstalled today. Training sessions will begin as soon as we are back up to speed.