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SYDNEY MICROSCOPY & MICROANALYSIS

IN THIS ISSUE01 A WORD FROM THE DEPUTY

DIRECTOR

03 TITANIUM DIOXIDE – SUCH POTENTIAL

04 COMBINED AUSTRALIAN MATERIALS SOCIETIES (CAMS) CONFERENCE ONLINE ATOM PROBE WORKBENCH LAUNCHED

05 STAFF PROFILE & AWARDS

06 SAFELY EXPLORING DANGEROUS IDEAS SUPER RESOLUTION WORKSHOP

07 WHAT’S ON HELP US TO HELP YOU

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR MICROSCOPY & MICROANALYSIS

FEATURED MICROGRAPHS

A WORD FROM THE DEPUTY DIRECTOR BY FILIP BRAET

Correlative light and electron microscopy is trending amongst the world’s leading microscopists and imaging specialists. Sydney was recently the hot spot for this research community as we welcomed them to Focus on Microscopy 2014.

Live cell imaging on the CellR microscope allows cells to be observed over periods of up to three days. Dean Procter from the School of Molecular & Microbial Biosciences has been studying the proliferation of vaccinia virus in cultured cells and how certain viral proteins affect this process. Virus-infected cells are labelled in green. To learn more about what you can do on this microscope please contact Dr Pam Young: 9351 7527.

In April the University of Sydney successfully hosted the 2014 Focus on Microscopy (FOM) conference. FOM is the premier annual meeting of the world’s leading light microscopists and imaging specialists. After two years of planning we warmly welcomed over 600 delegates from around the world to the

“far end of the Earth” here in Sydney for an exciting program of tutorials, platform and poster presentations and an exhibition featuring many leading manufacturers and suppliers of microscopy equipment.

FOM2014 was organised by myself, Fred Brakenhoff (University of Amsterdam) and Guy Cox (University of Sydney). I’d like to thank all our sponsors for their great support, and give special thanks to our major sponsor, Leica Microsystems who are celebrating ten years of super-resolution microscopy.

Contributing to the success of this event was the generous support of Business Events Sydney, the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility (AMMRF), the Bosch Institute, Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) and our own Research Office. Of special note was that this event was solely organised by the University Sydney Union.

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SYDNEY MICROSCOPY & MICROANALYSIS

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I was very pleased to chair this year’s conference and it was wonderful to see all the sessions so well attended. Conference participants were keen to learn more about so many innovative and traditional techniques and especially how to combine multimodal imaging data over length scales.

FOM2014 sessions covered a diverse range of topics including: confocal, fluorescence, light-sheet, non-linear, phase, super-resolution microscopies, optical theory, image analysis and reconstruction and of course correlative light and electron microscopy which is trending right now.

Downloadable abstracts are available at www.focusonmicros-copy.org along with details of FOM2015 which will be held in Göttingen, Germany, from 29 March to 1 April.

I would also like to thank those students and staff here at Sydney that worked on FOM2014 for their time and logistics support. They were enthusiastic and unflappable in attending to all the details that ensured the conference ran smoothly. Well done!

It was inspiring to see how the dynamic light microscopy community is applying the great wealth of techniques to their diverse research projects. This of course is what we aim to do by helping our users to get the most from our core facility. Sydney Microscopy & Microanalysis (SMM) is at the front of the optical and laser microscopy curve, in terms of the capabilities we offer.

The soon to be opened Cellular Imaging Facility at the Charles Perkins Centre (CPC) will further strengthen our credentials in this area. The CPC has recently opened for teaching and the phased establishment of high-end specialist research equipment and technical services for researcher groups moving into the centre has begun. It is a very exciting and busy time for us as we establish our labs in CPC. We look forward to welcoming our research community into this spectacular new hub, which will bring together researchers from diverse disciplines and enable them to deliver the highest quality research outcomes.

If you are interested in finding out more about our capabilities at CPC, I encourage you to make contact with our Lab Manager, Ellie Kable: eleanor.kable@sydney.edu.au

Left: opening address of CLEM workshop on Sunday afternoon by Trevor Hindwood (Australian Microscopy Society). Right: closing of FOM2014 on Wednesday afternoon April 16, York Theatre, Seymour Center, University of Sydney.

It was inspiring to see how the dynamic light microscopy community is applying the great wealth of techniques…

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TITANIUM DIOXIDE – SUCH POTENTIAL

Did you know it is possible to watch crystals transform before your eyes inside a TEM? Jie Sun (Victor) and Yimin Lei (Fiona), students with A/Prof. Zongwen Liu from the School of Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering have been doing this with titanium dioxide (TiO

2). It is part of their investigations into how TiO

2 can be made

into a more efficient photocatalyst.

When sun hits a photocatalyst the energy knocks electrons out of their normal positions generating highly reactive free radicals that can break down any nearby molecules. This is the basis for self-cleaning and antibacterial surfaces, where organic molecules or bacteria that come into contact with the surface keep reacting until they are converted into carbon dioxide and water.

Making nanoscale TiO2 that contains an interface between

two different crystal structures improves the ability of electrons to move through the material in response to sunlight. This makes dual-phase nanoscale TiO

2 a candidate

for more efficient: ƛ photocatalysts ƛ lithium batteries ƛ solar cells for capturing and converting solar energy into

electricity.

Our TEM expert Dr Hongwei Lui has been helping Jie (Victor) and Yimin (Fiona) to use the in-situ heating capabili-ties in our high-resolution TEMs (JEM-2200FS and JEM-3000F) and to watch the transformation from one form of titanium dioxide, TiO

2(B) to another, anatase, through

real-time fast Fourier transformation of the TEM image.

They had already made before-and-after observations of fibres that had transformed in the lab at atmospheric pres-sure. Now, through their observations of fibres inside the TEM, where the pressure is very low, they discovered that the phase transformation happened much more slowly and that the transformation didn’t start until the temperature was much higher. The low pressure of the reaction environ-ment also retards the normally rapid phase transition of the TiO

2 (B) to anatase, making it more controllable and much

easier to observe.

This knowledge will help to control the conditions for TiO2

phase transformations and optimise production of nanoma-terials for more effective photocatalysts, lithium batteries and potentially, a new wave of solar cells. This work is also important for understanding the photocatalysis process and the mechanisms associated with the phase-transition interface.

To learn more about this technique contact Hongwei at hongwei.liu@sydney.edu.au

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COMBINED AUSTRALIAN MATERIALS SOCIETIES (CAMS) CONFERENCEMaterials scientists are invited to join us at CAMS2014 for Australia’s largest interdisciplinary technical meeting on the latest advances in materials science, engineering and technology.

The Australian Ceramic Society, together with Materials Australia is proud to present the third biennial conference of the Combined Australian Materials Societies (CAMS), from Wednesday 26 – Friday 28 November, 2014 in the newly opened Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney.

SMM staff are heavily involved with the organisation of the meeting, with A/Prof Julie Cairney acting as co-chair, together with Charles C. Sorrell from UNSW, and Prof. Simon Ringer acting as Technical Chair. The conference program has ground-breaking speakers, an intensive scientific program featuring five concurrent streams and exciting social events. This is the premium event of the Australian materials calendar.

The organising committee looks forward to welcoming delegates to Sydney for this conference and would like to acknowledge and thank the AMMRF for their support as the CAMS2014 Innovation Partner.

For more information visit www.cams2014.com.au

The NeCTAR Characterisation Virtual Laboratory (CVL) project is now in its final stages, and one of the first workbenches available is the Atom Probe Workbench.

This workbench brings atom probe analysis capabilities online, most of which were previously only available to University of Sydney researchers and their collaborators. The workbench is a first for the atom probe microscopy community, bringing together our computational capabilities and making them available to atom probe users world-wide.

The Atom Probe Workbench is ready for user registrations through www.massive.org.au/cvl

ONLINE ATOM PROBE WORKBENCH LAUNCHEDIn atom probe experiments, most steps are computational and datasets are GB in size. Cloud computing for data analysis is an exciting new development in microstructural characterisation.

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IN PROFILE: DR PAMELA YOUNGRecently we welcomed Pam to the Sydney Microscopy & Microanalysis team as our new Light & Optical Microscopist.

Pam received her PhD in Medical Biophysics & Biomolecular Imaging from Indiana University working in the Indiana Center for Biological Microscopy for Dr. Kenneth Dunn. Her dissertation was on The Effects of Refractive Index Mismatch on Multiphoton Fluorescence Excitation Microscopy of Biological Tissue. She went on to the University of Wisconsin where she received a Department of Defense CDMRP BCRP Postdoctoral Fellowship Award. There she worked as part of the collaboration between the Laboratory for Optical and Computational Instrumentation, under the directorship of Kevin Eliceiri and Patricia Keely’s breast cancer laboratory. Here she developed and optimised techniques for breast cancer imaging, specifically intravital studies using the rodent mammary imaging window for long term studies using multiphoton microscopy, second

harmonic generation imaging, and fluorescence lifetime imaging. These techniques were used to investigate the connection between cancer cell progression and the cellular microenvi-ronment, specifically by examining the effects of collagen density and alignment on cellular metabolism in breast cancer cells.

In January, we were very pleased to welcome Pam to the SMM team as our new Light & Optical Microscopist.

“I’m loving it here at SMM and I’ve been delighted to work with both our seasoned user group as well as our

new users.” Pam’s interest and expertise in advanced fluo-rescence techniques such as Fluorescence Lifetime Imaging (FLIM), Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP), and Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (FRET) will keep our users at the cutting edge of this technology.

In February the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Society (AMMS) held their biennial Australian Conference on Microscopy & Microanalysis in conjunction with ICONN2014. It was a great meeting all round and AMMS presented a number of awards for excellence in microscopy. Prof. Xiaozhou Liao (shown right), from the School of Aerospace, Mechanical & Mechatronic Engineering, was awarded the John Sanders Medal for excellence in developing or applying electron microscope techniques to problems of practical importance in

IN RECOGNITIONWe congratulate Prof. Xiaozhou Liao and PhD student Jeffrey Henriquez for being recognised by the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Society (AMMS).

the physical and chemical sciences. Prof. Liao and his group are regular users of the ACMM, especially in sophisticated transmission electron microscopy techniques for advanced materials analysis.

The work of Jeffrey Henriquez, PhD student with our Deputy Director, A/Prof. Filip Braet, was also recognised. He won an AMMS prize for his posterEvaluation of the resolving power of GSD Super-resolution microscopy using F-actin arrays in Caco2 cells.

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Research activities can involve a range of hazards and risks. SMM staff are committed to ensuring safe work practices in our labs and take a pro-active approach to ensuring your research endeavours comply with the University’s Work, Health & Safety (WHS) framework.

Building a safe work culture relies on staff, students and external users working together to manage risk. Improving compliance in our WHS practices will help you increase the effectiveness of your time in the Centre.

Here are our top tips to save you time and keep everyone safe at SMM.

1. Keep Risk Assessment (RA) and Safe Work Procedure (SWP) forms up to date

Be familiar with the updated SMM Risk Assess-ment (RA) and Safe Work Procedure (SWP) forms. Templates are available in the common WHS folder or from our Safety Officer. While we already have a large archive of RA/SWP documents for existing experimental techniques used in our laboratories, if you wish to conduct

a new experiment that does not already have a RA/SWP, you need to complete these forms and submit them to the Safety Officer for approval.

2. Complete a Pre-purchase Checklist for items you wish to bring into the Centre

SMM is required to keep track of what hazardous items may be brought in to the Centre, and how they are stored and disposed of. Our Pre-purchase Checklist form provides guidelines on what items require pre-purchase approval. Templates are available in the common WHS folder or from our Safety Officer. Most items (such as office stationary) do not require an approval, however some items (such as chemicals, furniture, major equipment) require you to submit the checklist prior to purchasing them.

3. Use proper safety goggles when working with chemicals

Many of the chemicals we work with can be harmful to our health if we are exposed to them. Some pose a risk of injury or incident if not handled properly. There are also specific legislative requirements for working with hazardous substances, dangerous goods and scheduled poisons.

The University standard for chemical safety goggles has an elastic strap and a good seal around your eyes. Users should not be using the old “sunglasses” type of safety goggles. It is also important to be aware that your regular glasses are not safety goggles.

Safety in the workplace is a cooperative venture. Staff and users of our facilities are mutually obliged to contribute towards and maintain safety.

SAFELY EXPLORING DANGEROUS IDEAS

34 people bravely gave up their Sunday morning to attend this workshop. Industry and researchers gave presentations to help in our understanding of how the different Super Resolution Techniques work and the pitfalls from sample preparation to analysis. Most people came away now understanding what SIM, STED, GSD, PALM and STORM mean and how they work; and what fluorescent dyes are able to be used.

We would like to acknowledge, Leica, Lastek, Nikon and Zeiss for bringing in their experts in these techniques and for A/Prof. Guy Cox (USyd), Dr Lynne Turnbull (UTS), Dr Toby Bell and Ms Donna Whelan (Monash University) for sharing their specialised Super Resolution techniques.

If you want to know more about Super Resolution and what these acronyms mean, contact Dr Pamela Young: pamela.young@sydney.edu.au

SUPER RESOLUTION WORKSHOP SMM held a Super Resolution Workshop on Sunday the 13th April, before FOM2014.

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CALL FOR ABSTRACTS: CAMS 2014 : DEADLINE 15/06/14

Join Australia’s largest interdisciplinary technical meeting on the latest advances in materials science, engi-neering and technology. Our technical program will cover a range of themes identified by researchers and industry as issues of most topical interest. We invite prospective authors to submit a brief Abstract, up to 400 words under any of these themes.

Please submit abstracts online by Wednesday 15 June 2014. www.cams2014.com.au

SYDNEY MICROSCOPY & MICROANALYSIS

T +61 2 9351 2351F +61 2 9351 7682E acmm.info@sydney.edu.ausydney.edu.au/acmm

Volume #03 2014Editor: Linda CassimatisE linda.cassimatis@sydney.edu.au

HELP US TO HELP YOUWhere microscopy enables your research endeavours, we’re counting on you to acknowledge the role our facilities and expertise played in your work.

Acknowledgements demonstrate that investments in equipment and people have led to important outcomes. Your publications, presentations and posters are a vital part of the business case for ongoing funding of the ACMM and SMM. Here is a sample of correct acknowledgement.

“The authors acknowledge the facilities, and the scientific and technical assistance, of the Australian Microscopy & Microanalysis Research Facility at the Australian Centre for Microscopy & Microanalysis, at the University of Sydney.”

You can easily access this text anytime on this link:ammrf.org.au/access/acknowledge-us

WHAT’S ONPOSTER COMPETITION – IT’S ON AGAIN! DEADLINE 28/11/14

Congratulations to Victoria Morin-Adeline for her winning entry in our 2013 Poster Competition. Her poster Ultra-structure and physiological differences of the bovine and feline Tritrichomonas foetus strains is now on display in the hallway of the Madsen Building.

When you submit a poster that acknowledges the use of SMM’s instru-ments and technical expertise (see the article above), send us a digital copy at acmm.administration@sydney.edu.au to be in the running to win a great prize at the end of the year. Entries close Friday 28 November 2014. The winner will be announced at the SMM Christmas Party.

ELECTROPOLISHING WORKSHOP 25/08/2014

This half day workshop aims to provide new Users, Honours, PhD students and research staff with practical training in how to:

ƛ prepare a sample for electropolishing by sectioning

ƛ use the twin-jet polisher for the thinning of 3mm discs to electron transparency.

When: Monday 25 AugustTime: 9am – 1pmWhere: Madsen Building (F09)

To enrol in this workshop, please contact the convenor: Adam Sikorski adam.sikorski@sydney.edu.au