# Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscope

> **NIH NIH S10** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2020 · $600,000

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY
Rapid advances over the past decade have generated novel technologies to image tissue at both
ultrastructural resolution and in three dimensional volumes. Such technologies have provided new ability
to probe the ultrastructure of cells and tissues and have thus been a boon for both cell biologists and
neurobiologists. One such technique is Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy (SBFSEM),
which consists of an ultramicrotome mounted within the chamber of a scanning electron microscope. In
SBFSEM, samples are prepared, stained and mounted in resin as they would be for traditional
transmission electron microscopy (TEM). However, instead of the labor- and time-intensive process of
creating, collecting, imaging and registering images from ultra-thin sections (~40nm) in TEM, the resin-
embedded tissue blocks are inserted into the SBFSEM chamber, the block face is imaged by collecting
the back-scattered electrons, the upper-most surface of the block-face is removed by the ultramicrotome,
and without displacing the resin block, another image of the block-face is obtained. Repeating this
process allows the rapid capture of hundreds to thousands of serial images that have near-TEM
resolution (1-5 nm in the x-y axis, depending on the SBFSEM make and model) and are captured in
register. Large volumes of three-dimensional data that previously took months or years to obtain and
assemble can now be produced in a day with SBFSEM. A group of highly productive biomedical
researchers at Virginia Tech have identified this methodology as a necessary component of their NIH-
funded research projects. Because no SBFSEM instrument is present at Virginia Tech, these groups
have thus far outsourced the generation of SBFSEM datasets to Renovo Neural, Inc. However,
outsourcing SBFSEM dataset generation is expensive and slow, which ultimately impedes progress on
these investigators' NIH-funded research projects. For this reason, these researchers are requesting
funds to purchase a Thermo Fisher Apreo VolumeScope SEM for Virginia Tech. This instrument would
be installed at the Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute (FBRI), a world-class biomedical
research institute, where the majority of the Major Users identified in this proposal are located.
Furthermore, leadership at FBRI is committed to financially support an imaging facility that houses the
Thermo Fisher Apreo VolumeScope SEM.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9940158
- **Project number:** 1S10OD026838-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** MICHAEL A FOX
- **Activity code:** S10 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $600,000
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-08-20 → 2022-08-19

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9940158

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9940158, Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscope (1S10OD026838-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9940158. Licensed CC0.

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