FAST-EM – Fast Accessible Serial Transmission EM

Mapping the connectome of whole brains of multiple individuals or of larger animal species is very valuable to neuroscience. Across individuals, comparative connectomics can establish a baseline of variability in neuronal circuits for further comparisons with other species, sexes, developmental stages or disease models. With larger organisms, the connectome of species evolutionarily closer to medically relevant laboratory animals can be mapped. Today, the gold standard in connectomics is electron microscopy (EM), which delivers densely imaged volumes at nanometre resolution from which all neuronal arbours and synapses are reconstructed with manual and machine learning techniques. Among the many EM modalities, GridTape TEM offers among the lowest cost per yield, but presents barriers to broad adoption such as high costs per sample and restricted availability. We propose to develop GridTape TEM beyond its original conception for low-cost, high-throughput imaging. To ease application beyond our lab, the design targets a variety of existing transmission electron microscopes already available in facilities world wide. As a proof of principle, the extended goals beyond the first year include imaging the brain of a honeybee and of a small gecko lizard. Our proposal holds the promise of democratising access to high-throughput volume electron microscopy, opening new avenues of research within neuroscience and beyond.