Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/U504452/1
The correlative cryo-analytical centre: A globally unique facility for combined cryo-electron microscopy and cryo-elemental imaging
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr D Evans, University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Grant held at:
- University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Science Area:
- None
- Overall Classification:
- Unknown
- ENRIs:
- None
- Science Topics:
- None
- Abstract:
- The answers to many of society's most pressing problems sit at the interface between life and inorganic materials. For example, the world's largest bioconstructions, coral reefs, are built by tiny organisms that form a calcium carbonate skeleton; particles with a diameter many times smaller than the width of a human hair cause disease in those living in polluted areas; while plants grow and exchange nutrients with both the minerals and microbes in soil. The challenges related to these interactions, for instance, how coral reefs and the communities that depend on them will fare in a hotter and more acidic ocean, how intensive farming practices deplete the soil carbon reservoir, and why tiny pollution particles cause disease, requires us to form a mechanistic understanding of the chemical interactions that take place between these biological and inorganic components. However, this is extremely challenging because the techniques required to prepare the hard versus soft parts for analysis typically destroy or damage the other. For instance, organic material is removed before a coral skeleton is chemically analysed, conversely, preserving the complexity of soil or cell structure for imaging requires fixation in chemically disruptive resin. Cryo-fixation overcomes many of these preparation issues by freezing the sample in place, however cryo-SEM detection systems are only capable of analysing a limited range of high concentration elements. Therefore, current analytical approaches force us to choose between analysing either the soft or hard parts of a system of interest, when both, and the interface between them, are required for a process-based understanding. The proposed asset builds on recent technological advances to provide a novel solution to this discipline-spanning problem. We will couple cryogenic preparation procedures, which instantly lock-in the minute details of the relationship between biological and inorganic components, with both a cryo-equipped SEM, for high resolution imaging, and cryo-laser ablation, capable of precise, low concentration (sub-parts-per-million), chemical imaging. Using a correlative workflow, this will be the first laboratory facility in the world capable of mapping low concentration chemical data onto high-resolution cryo-images, crucially, while maintaining complex composite samples intact. We will initially use the facility to mechanistically understand: 1) how marine organisms form their shells and skeletons, critical to our ability to understand their role in future carbon cycle changes, their resilience, and to assess their reliability as archives of palaeoclimate change; 2) why certain sources and types of particulate pollution are more damaging than others, by spatially linking particle composition to tissue damage and disease; and 3) how carbon and nutrient exchange between plants, minerals, and microbes in soil will respond to environmental change. Together, these topics cover the two largest carbon pools on Earth's surface (ocean and soil) and a key cause of disease. However, the novelty and timeliness of the facility means that it has much broader application. In our preliminary assessment of the community's needs, we identified 30 interested groups/researchers from seven disciplines, spanning the Earth and environmental sciences, biology, geography, biomedicine, and materials science. These researchers identified novel directions in the study of diverse samples, from polymers to tube worms, and lake sediments to microbes. As such, the proposed asset clearly addresses an urgent research need across communities in the Earth and environmental sciences and will result in step-changes in a host of societally-crucial, policy-relevant research questions at the interface of inorganic-biological systems.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/U504452/1
- Grant Stage:
- Awaiting Event/Action
- Scheme:
- Research Grants
- Grant Status:
- Active
- Programme:
- Capital Call
This grant award has a total value of £750,000
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Equipment |
|---|
| £750,000 |
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