The ESEM is offline due to issues with the power supply. We are working with the manufacturer to correct the issue.
The ESEM is back online and available for use.
The ESEM is down. I am working with FEI to diagnose the error.
The STEM is back online. The chiller repairs are completed and the technician from FEI has finished his maintenance.
Facilities have completed the updates on the rooftop chiller. They add capacity to the system by switching to potable water to cool the condenser side of the chillers. This will temporarily resolve the problem and get us back online until a more robust solution can be implemented. The technician from Thermo Fisher will be here this week to complete the repairs. If all goes well the TEM will be back online next week.
Stay tuned for more information.
Dr. Smitha Rao, assistant professor for Biomedical Engineering at Michigan Tech, and the Biomedical µDevices research team developed a way to be able to observe how breast cancer cells grow and migrate in various environments. The project developed scaffolding systems that mimic structures that could be found in human tissue. They engineered three polycaprolactone scaffold structures to test different topographical and mechanical features: hexagonal, mesh-like and aligned.
The image was taken by Dr. Smitha Rao’s graduate and undergraduate students using ACMAL’s Hitachi S-4700 FE-SEM.
Read more about Dr. Rao and the Biomedical µDevices research team’s work:
- “Engineered Three-Dimensional Scaffolds Modulating Fate of Breast Cancer Cells Using Stiffness and Morphology Related Cell Adhesion” in IEEE Open Journal of Engineering in Medicine and Biology
- The Biomedical µDevices webpage
Visit the Applied Chemical and Morphological Analysis Laboratory’s webpage to learn more about our shared facility and instruments available to the Michigan Tech research community: ACMAL
If you have you have an image you would like to be featured, submit it here:
The FESEM chiller is repaired. The instrument has been tested and is back online.
The FESEM is down. There was a brief power outage yesterday which caused the instrument to lose vacuum. I am currently working to get it back online. I did run into an issue with the instrument chiller, which is causing this issue to persist.
This is a reminder that ACMAL facilities will be CLOSED on Monday, September 6th, in observance of labor day. This is a university holiday so the building will also be locked.
The carbon coater repairs are completed and the instrument is available for use. Please contact Aleister, Josh, or myself if you need samples coater.