Automated Specimen Staining for TEM Using a Liquid Handling Workstation

Introduction Automation of data collection with Leginon1 and robotic loading of grids into the microscope2 has made it now feasible to perform large scale screening with tens to hundreds of grids. In our laboratory, 96 grids can be imaged automatically without human intervention over a weekend. Applications for these larger scale EM experiments include combinatorial screening for applications in protein purification, crystallization or the evaluation of assembly conditions. Manual preparation of the large number of negatively stained specimen grids to support these experiments can be a tedious process that is not well controlled. To address this, we have prototyped an automated staining system that uses standard micro-titer plate formats.