Practical Course at UCEM - TEM sample preparation, 8-12 December 2025
A practical course on biological sample preparation for TEM.
Course description
This is a practical course on biological sample preparation for TEM and includes:
Ultra-microtome sectioning
Chemical fixation
Plastic embedding
TEM imaging
High-pressure freezing & freeze substitution
Immunolabeling techniques (Immunogold, CLEM)
Volume EM (FIB-SEM & Tomography)
Segmentation and sampling - Online lecture by Ilya Belevich, University of Helsinki
Participants will practice TEM sample preparation and TEM imaging with a sample from their own project. Lab space limits the number of participants to 8, chosen by motivation and project aim. Write a short project description, motivation for participating and what sample you would like to bring for the course. It takes time to do fixation and plastic embedding. Therefore, one test-sample should be brought to be prepared before the course, and a new test-sample is brought for the first day.
In addition, a small presentation about an EM-project idea of your own should be prepared and presented on the last day.
Participants should attend all theoretical and practical parts of the course to receive a certificate of 1,5 hp.
Pre-requisite criterion: Basic EM course at UCEM or previous equal experiences with EM methods.
Teachers: Sara Henriksson, Agnieszka Ziolkowska, Behnam Lak and Linda Sandblad