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Fees

• FEI T-12 Spirit - $ 105.00 per hour, one hour minimum
• FEI Talos Arctica - $190.00 per hour
• FEI Titan Krios - $260.00 per hour
• Staff Assistance - $260.00 per hour, one hour minimum
• A maximum of 12 hours will be charged for each 24 hour period of microscope use.
• Training costs on the T-12 will include the hourly charges of the instrument plus the charge for staff assistance.
• Collaborators will incur a discount as rates can be divided. 

Regulations

1. Charges will commence at the time reserved on the Scheduler. The starting time and ending times cannot be changed after the session starts. The ending time of a session can possibly be changed by contacting the facility staff.
2. Training for the T-12 Spirit generally lasts approximately 12 hours depending on the ability of the student. The length of the training period is designed so that the student can develop a moderate level of expertise, independently run the instruments, and handle them without causing any costly damage. All other training and service will be charged according to staff time used. It is required that all training be given by the Director.
3. The Training staff determines if the student has the necessary skills to use the instruments without supervision or to operate them during non-peak hours.

Please contact the facility staff to apply for access to UOW Cryo-EM resources.

Training

Training costs will include the hourly charges of the instrument plus the charge for staff assistance.

Users not affiliated Australian Academic Institutions must pay an additional 45% overhead.

Charges will commence at the time reserved on the Scheduler. The starting time and ending times typically cannot be changed after the session starts. The ending time of a session may possibly be changed by contacting the Facility Manager.

Training for the Tecnai T-12 generally lasts 12 hours depending on the ability of the student. The length of the training period is designed so that the student can develop a moderate level of expertise, independently run the instruments, and handle them without causing any costly damage.

It is required that all training be given by the Facility Manager. Additional training for the Vitrobot, Arctica and Krios can be provided to approved advanced customers.

The Manager will determine if the customer has the necessary skills to use the instruments without supervision during business hours (M-F 9am - 5pm).

Access on a 24-7 basis will be authorized once the Manager has determined sufficient expertise. Typically 30 hrs of independent use of the T-12 will be sufficient to gain 24/7 advanced customer access.

Additional information on training may be found on the links above.

Additional regulations may be found on in the rules section above. Failure to follow these conditions may result in the revocation of use privileges.

For example - Training for the Talos Artica

Access to the FEI-Thermo Fisher Arctica and Krios microscopes are reserved for approved projects using frozen vitrified samples that require the use of a direct detector, the precision of the compustage, and the coherence of a Field Emission Source. Use of the Arctica must be approved and requires hiring a Facility staff member to run the microscope. Expert users with additional training will be allowed limited access to the Arctica. Loading of the samples into both the Arctica and Krios will be performed by staff.

Email: cryoem-facility@uow.edu.au 

• All publications that in part of or in full arise from the use of the facility will need to include the following text in the acknowledgments section:
  We wish to thank and acknowledge the use of the ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵapp of ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵapp Cryogenic Electron Microscopy Facility at Molecular Horizons under the management of Dr. James C. Bouwer and Interim Directorship of Senior Professor Eileen McLaughlin.
• A faculty oversight committee has been formed to periodically review the operations of the facility as well as to approve any extraordinary exceptions to the following rules. The facility manager has the authority to approve daily operational exceptions as needed.
• The Cryo-Electron Microscopy Facility is available to UOW faculty, staff and students and also to members of Australian Academic Institutions at established campus approved recharge rates.
• The Facility does not have the resources for sample preparation except for negative staining and plunge freezing of particulate samples. Users are expected to determine what preparation techniques are needed for their own specimens and to perform them in their own lab.
• The Facility is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. Experienced users may use the Facility after hours at the discretion of the Facility Manager and after proper training has been received.
• No user will be allowed to operate the microscopes and ancillary equipment without proper training. The Facility Manager will determine if a potential user’s previous training is adequate, and if not, will provide such training. The ancillary equipment includes, but is not limited to, the:
  • Carbon Evaporator
  • FEI Vitrobot
  • Glow Discharge
• Users are expected to leave the microscopes, the scope rooms, and the wet lab in a condition such that the Facility is ready for the next user. These include but are not limited to:
• Properly shutting down the instruments
• Straightening up the rooms that were used
• Notifying the Facility Manager if there is a problem with the microscopes or any other piece of equipment and writing down the occurrence in the associated logbook
• Notifying the Facility Manager when the liquid nitrogen tanks, the dry nitrogen tanks and any other items are emptied
• Turning off all lights, including the hallway, and locking all doors when finishing work after hours
• No image files should be stored on the microscope computers and no external, file-storage devices (i.e. flash drives, CDs) should be attached to them. Digital files may be transferred to interim storage resources. Users are requested to remove their data from the CryoEM facility storage servers as soon as possible. Data older than two months will be deleted by the Facility Manager without owner notification.
• All established safety procedures need to be followed and all hazardous waste is to be properly disposed.
• No user should attempt to fix any equipment problems, regardless of how small or insignificant they may appear to be. The Facility Manager’s contact information is posted outside of each microscope room and a 24 hour phone number is listed.
• No user should schedule the T-12 microscope for more than two, full days a week during normal working hours. Extra, available, unscheduled sessions may be claimed if the time until the session is less than 24 hours. Exceptions may be given for extenuating circumstances or if a researcher has collaborators who travel from an outside region.
• There will be no restrictions on how much time a user can schedule outside of the normal work week but courtesy to other users is expected.
• A user will be charged for a scheduled appointment if the user does not show up or delete the appointment from the scheduler. Charging for the session will begin at the scheduled time.
• Users who receive microscope and/or ancillary equipment training will be charged both for the microscope time and for the Facility Manager’s time.
• A maximum of 12 hours will be charged to a user for a 24 hour day regardless of how long the instrument is used.