Cryo-EM

VITROBOT ANDO CLIPPING STATION:

1. Equipment must be checked in all their parts: everything must be clean and without any obvious damage. If this is not the case, please immediately contact the facility coordinator.
2. The humidifier cylinder must be filled before switching on the instrument
3. Heating plate must be checked to be at a temperature between 30 to 40 ° C
4. Report to the staff the presence of incorrect behavior or waste not properly disposed of.
5. Retrieve the ethane gas cylinder from the cabinet.

MICROSCOPE:

1. Equipment must be checked in all their parts: everything must be clean and without any obvious damage. If this is not the case, please immediately contact the facility coordinator.
2. The microscope session starts at 9:30 am. Users must organize themselves with those of the previous shift for the insertion and retrieval of grids from the microscope.
3. Every grid inserted in the microscope MUST be checked for corrected clipping before loading and after removing from the cartridge. Any mis clipped grids removed from the microscope must be noted down in the log book.
4. The exact number of grid loaded and their position in the cartridge must be recorded in the logbook
5. DO NOT load any grid in position 1

VITROBOT ANDO CLIPPING STATION:

1. Good lab practices must be followed to prevent damage to the instrument.
2. If facility consumables are used (grids, grid box, c-clip, rings) the exact number of items consumed must be recorded in the logbook.

MICROSCOPE:

1. Good lab practices must be followed to prevent damage to the instrument.
2. Regular users MUST follow the given instruction and DO NOT change the microscope preset parameters
3. Advanced user can change the preset parameters, but the standard parameters MUST be restore at the end of the session.
4. Any unusual behavior of the instrument MUST be immediately reported, and NO FURTHER operations must be performed until the problem has been resolved by and advance user or a facility member.
5. Data must be stored in the User folder with the following name:
6. YYMMDD_projectname_ATLAS for grid atlas folder
7. YYMMDD_ projectname for images folder
8. YYMMDD_projectname_samplename_EPU for EPU data collection

VITROBOT ANDO CLIPPING STATION:

1. Remove the blotting paper and empty the humidifier.
2. DO NOT leave anything in the room.
3. Switch off the vitrobot after each use.
4. Switch off the heating plate.
5. Remove any unused liquid nitrogen.
6. Warm up and dry all nitrogen containers (dewars, clipping station, vitrobot puck) and tools (tweezers, clipping tools).
7. Store all the used tools.
8. Close and store back to the cabinet the ethane gas cylinder.
9. Properly discard solid biological waste into a biological bin of your lab.
10. All liquid biological waste must be DISCARDED IN YOUR OWN LAB.
11. Contaminated gloves must be discarded.
12. If the mQ water bottle is empty, it must be refilled before the next user shift.
13. Equipment must be checked in all their parts: everything must be clean and without any obvious damage. If this is not the case, please immediately contact the facility coordinator.

MICROSCOPE:

1. The microscope session ends at 9:30 am of the following day. Users must organize themselves with those of the following shift for the insertion and retrieval of grids from the microscope.
2. Data must be removed within one week of the instrument reservation date
3. Equipment must be checked in all their parts: everything must be clean and without any obvious damage. If this is not the case, please immediately contact the facility coordinator.
4. The mounting station, the nano capsule and the clipped grids tweezers must be warmed up and dried.
5. The instrument logbook must be filled in every section.
6. Grids can be stored in the storage dewar in a traceable grid box for at maximum of 6 month.