Advanced Substrate Holder : Instruments for Array Tomography.
The ASH2 is capable of capturing hundreds of serial sections for high-volume array tomography and correlative 3D workflows. Featuring three axes of orientation, the ASH 2 saves the user time with a rapid alignment process, collecting long ribbons of sections directly on the substrate of choice for subsequent electron microscope imaging.
Supplied with a carrying case, the lightweight ASH 2 can be easily transported from one ultramicrotome to another, quickly converting it into an array tomography system.
ASH 2
• Developed in conjunction with scientists in Germany, the ASH 100, predecessor of ASH2, started the low volume array tomography story for RMC
• The ASH2 prototype was first shown at M&M Baltimore and IMC Sydney, in 2018 and launched in April 2019
• Sections on the substrate of your choice can be directly transferred to the microscope for fast, efficient imaging
• Contrasting can be easily carried out post-sectioning, prior to imaging
• Capable of handling hundreds of sections on one substrate
• ASH2 can be used with a variety of standard diamond knives as well as knives with larger boats for larger substrates.
Benefits and advantages
• Sections are not lost but can be archived and reused many times
• Low magnification imaging can be carried out in the initial scan to find the region(s) of interest (ROI).
• Increasingly higher magnification imaging can be carried out only on the ROI’s. This can save many hours of user and scope time
• With ASH2 you can prepare one 25x25mm silicon wafer of a hundred or so sections and check just that one volume. If you capture the ROI then you need go no further – very fast accrual of 3D data.
• Sample does not need to be dosed with high levels of heavy metals prior to sectioning.
• Contrasting in the usual way can be carried out after sectioning.
• Imunolabelling can be carried out on the sections
• Fluorescence techniques for LM can be employed
• Preparation is off-column, so there is no requirement to adjust the SEM before work
• The sectioning process does not tie up valuable column time
• If one wafer is not enough, you can continue onto other wafers to increase the volume
• If you need more sections, use ATUMtome to produce high sample volumes, with fully automated sample collection.