We have just started a photoblog gallery of TEM images at www.temwindowgrids.com
We will also be posting the monthly newsletter from TEMwindows on the photoblog. Please take a look. We welcome image submissions and will have a drawing for an iPod Nano each quarter. Here’s a preview:
Sunday, November 15th’s edition of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle featured an article about SiMPore, Inc. ”Startup Company SiMPore Produces First Product” talks about the successful launch of our TEMwindows.com business earlier this year, and our upcoming SepCon Spin Column launch. The article also discusses SiMPore’s future plans for continuing to grow the company.
Click here to read the article on the Democrat & Chronicle website.
SiMPore invites interested researchers to participate in our SepCon™ Spin Column product trials. The SepCon™ Spin Column incorporates SiMPore’s UltraSM membrane technology and offers the separation precision of chromatography with the speed and simplicity of a membrane device. The product can be used to separate and concentrate nanoparticles, proteins, nucleic acids, and other biological materials.
Product samples are provided free of charge to researchers participating in our trial program. In return, we request your timely feedback on our product’s performance and the ability to use any of your positive feedback in our marketing materials.
Product trials are currently underway. If you are interested in participating, please complete the form by clicking here (for nanoparticle separations) or here (for biological separations).
Or, if you are not interested in participating in our product trial, but would like to be kept up-to-date on the availability of SepCon™ Spin Column, please complete a different form by clicking here.
Our pure silicon nanoporous UltraSM® membranes are not only useful for electron microscopy, but also cell biology. In many studies of cell biology, one is interested in understanding how two cell populations interact or affect one another. This is important in studies of developmental biology, stem cell research as well as tissue and artifical organ engineering. Conventional materials used for co-culture studies consist of thick polymeric membranes that can trap low abundance short-distance signaling molecules that cells use to communicate. SiMPore’s nanoporous nanometer-thick membrane is ideal for studying two cell populations that are physically separated, but closely enough to easily communicate. Physical separation is important in many cellular studies where one cell type is harvested and isolated after co-culture. The figure above shows this ideal co-culture environment.
To demonstrate the thinness and transparency of our UltraSM® membranes, we plated human white blood cells on the top and bottom surface of the membrane. In imaging the cells, we focused from beneath the membrane, to membrane height and then above the membrane. Unlike traditional co-culture membranes, the 15 nm thick UltraSM® membrane is invisible and does not degrade the image quality of the cells on the top.
SiMPore and our academic partners are currently using UltraSM® membranes in additional formats to study everything from cell-cell communication to investigating improved drug permeability assays and even developing tissue engineering platforms. If you would like to learn more or work with us towards developing a better co-culture platform, feel free to contact me: tgaborski@simpore.com
A new distributor for UltraSM® Silicon TEM windows has joined our network—OctaLAB of Singapore. OctaLAB brings years of TEM-related experience to its customers in the ASEAN countries (Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Myanmar), China, and Taiwan. Check out OctaLAB at http://www.octalab.com.
This is a high-resolution TEM image of a silicon nano-crystal from one of our Porous 15 nm UltraSM® Silicon TEM Windows.
High-resolution TEM of porous nano-crystalline silicon membrane with prominent <110> crystal planes
This crystal is almost perfectly aligned, showing the individual atomic columns within two intersecting Si <110> crystal planes.
These crystal planes have a spacing of 0.19 nm. The more commonly imaged Si <111> crystal planes with 0.31 nm spacing are also obvious throughout this material and can be imaged as a convenient calibration standard.
As a curious aside, the Si-Si atomic spacing is 0.24 nm, so the observed <111> spacing is larger than the bond length. In a diamond lattice crystal structure like Si, the <111> planes are actually alternating closely spaced double-planes (or corrugated single planes). The measured distance is determined by the average center spacing of these double-planes, which is substantially larger than a single bond length.
100 & 200 micron frames for pure silicon TEM window grids
Pure silicon, UltraSM® TEM window grids are now available on 100 micron thick frames. These thinner frames permit high-angle imaging in double-tilt sample holders. The 9 and 15 nm thick non-porous, amorphous silicon windows of these grids are compatible with high-resolution imaging applications. Check them out here.
In our continued effort to make TEMwindows.com products more readily available to customers throughout the world, we are pleased to announce that Agar Scientific Ltd of Stansted, United Kingdom has agreed to sign on as a distributor. Agar Scientific provides electron microscopy consumables to customers in the UK and other European countries through its own company and its network of local agents and distributors. Agar is a well-established company with an excellent reputation, so we are excited about their ability to promote our UltraSM pure silicon technology. Agar’s website is www.agarscientific.com.
Agar Scientific Ltd joins Alliance Biosystems, Inc., SPI Supplies, PLANO GmbH, and Namotec Inc. as distributors of SiMPore’s TEMwindows.com product line. Customers are welcome to purchase their TEMwindows.com product through these partners, or may continue to purchase directly from us.
Today, Alliance Biosystems, Inc. of Osaka, Japan agreed to sign on as a TEMwindows.com distributor. ABI has been a distributor of electron microscopy consumables in Japan for 15 years. We are excited to partner with ABI as the Japanese TEM market is active and growing, and we are confident they will help us make more Japanese customers aware of the benefits of SiMPore’s UltraSM pure silicon technology. ABI’s website is www.alliance-bio.com.
Alliance Biosystems, Inc. joins SPI Supplies, PLANO GmbH, and Namotec Inc. as distributors of SiMPore’s TEMwindows.com product line. Customers are welcome to purchase their TEMwindows.com product through these partners, or may continue to purchase directly from us.
Chris Striemer and I (Tom Gaborski) took a trip down to Richmond, VA for the annual Microscopy and Microanalysis conference as representatives of our TEMwindows.com division.
This was my first conference on the other side of the fence. As a graduate student, I attended more than a dozen conferences always presenting either a poster or platform presentation, but never as an exhibitor.
Chris (SiMPore VP of Membrane Development) and I drove from Rochester, NY to Richmond through scenic central PA along the Susquehanna River – a 9 hour drive with traffic around DC. We made it Sunday afternoon with time to setup the booth before the big day on Monday.
SiMPore and TEMwindows.com have recently begun distribution through SPI Supplies and we were eager to meet their team at M&M. We had spoken with Gene and Andy (two of their Vice Presidents) on the phone and were excited to place faces with names. We arranged to have dinner with Gene and Jeff, one of their technical experts, at the Capital Ale House. With over 40 micro brews on tap and a burger special on Monday evenings it was an excellent choice. Chris and I had already dined there Sunday night, but who could blame us for a return visit to Richmond’s favorite pub. From our conversations, it was clear that SPI was an excellent choice for expanding our US and overseas presence. SPI has decades of experience in the EM market with dozens of dedicated staff who get pretty excited about anything TEM or SEM.
Monday was also the day of Rosa Diaz’s platform talk. She is one of our regular customers who won our Student Travel Award. We are sharing some details from her work in our monthly newsletter, so I won’t go into too much detail in this post. Her presentation was extremely well attended for a rising graduate student and we applaud her excellent work and look forward to her published paper.
At M&M we were also fortunate to meet Lynne Joyce of Agar Scientific. Agar is an international distributor of EM supplies in the UK as well as much of Europe. We are in the process of signing on Agar as one of our international distributors and are excited by the expertise and presence that Agar carries in the European market. In combination with PLANO serving our German speaking customers, we believe SiMPore’s silicon TEM windows will be easily accessible to our friends ‘across the pond’.
Chris and I were impressed by the interest in our window films from researchers in fields ranging from microelectronics to cell biology. We were happy to answer in-depth questions by many of our existing and future customers. I was intrigued by the number of inquires about cell viability on our pure silicon window films. It’s almost as if people knew that SiMPore is developing products for protein purification and cell culture using the UltraSM platform.
By Thursday afternoon, we were finally looking forward to the close of the conference. It was quite exhausting standing on the floor and answering questions for eight hours a day. We packed up as quickly as possible and hit the road by 4 pm, finally getting back to Rochester by 1:30am on Friday morning. It was a long trip, but well worth it. It was great to meet so many people in person and put a face to the voice on the phone or name in an email signature.
We look forward to seeing many familiar faces next year in Portland. Between now and then, we’ll be attending the Materials Research Society Meeting in Boston in early December. We hope to see many of you there.
As always, feel free to email or call us if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Tom
