Convergence of Transmission Electron Microscopy Methods for Materials and Life Sciences

This one-day workshop brings together researchers who are working in both life sciences and materials sciences to discuss common transmission electron microscopy methods and new instrumentation that will advance both disciplines. Scientific challenges in both areas have developed in similar directions, blurring the boundary between both topics and presenting an opportunity for synergy. For example, the development of atomic resolution techniques to study the structure of viruses and proteins has only recently been explored in the life sciences although it has been readily available for TEM studies in materials sciences for several decades. Similarly, spectroscopy, primarily used for materials science, could benefit biological topics greatly. On the materials science side, analysis of radiation sensitive materials, such as small catalytic particles and polymers can benefit from the low-dose, high-contrast methods which have been developed for biological samples. New in-situ techniques that allow samples to be analyzed in liquid or gas environments which more closely mimic native or application specific conditions are also of great interest to both communities. These opportunities have been made possible by advances in instrumentation within the last decade including sensitive detectors, automation of complex experiments, computational power to evaluate massive amounts of data, and aberration correctors that allow us to reach sub-angstrom resolution. This workshop is part of the new_Common Vision_initiative established by MRI and Huck Institutes to foster collaboration between life sciences and material sciences.__More information can be found_here.