Light Microscopy Imaging Center
Indiana University Bloomington
May 14, 2014
Correlative light and electron microscopy (CLEM) combines the advantages of the two separate microscopy platforms to image the same sample at vastly different resolutions. Light microscopy can provide images of organisms, whole cells and cell organelles. The use of fluorescently labeled proteins allows for the localization of specific proteins and also allows us to watch the dynamic reorganization of labeled proteins in real time, but even the best super-resolution images are limited to resolutions no better than 30 - 100 nanometers (i.e., larger than individual proteins and many macromolecular assemblies). On the other hand, electron microscopy can produce images at much higher resolution (sub-nanometer, in many cases), but only on relatively small and static regions of a organelle, cell or organism. In addition, there are rather limited ways to tag molecules of interest for visualization using EM. The developing field of CLEM examines exactly the same specimen at the different resolution scales provided by light and electron microscopy in a way that aligns features visible by light microscopy with the ultrastructure provided by electron microscopy. This combination provides complementary and often unique information that cannot be obtained when looking at specimens that are only superficially alike and that may not have even been prepared under similar conditions. IU-Bloomington's Light Microscopy Imaging Center (LMIC) and Electron Microscopy Center (EMC) have all the tools needed for CLEM. This workshop will discuss how to use these tools to take a correlative approach to various scientific questions.