Cryo Fixation Center

The Cryo Fixation Center is a satilite facility of the Harvard Center for Biological Imaging and provides high pressure freezing and freeze substitution services to researchers in the Cambridge area.

Hours:

The facility is open 24/7 with card access.

A member of the HCBI training team can be reserved for assistance Monday-Friday 8am-5pm

Contact:

52 Oxford St
Northwest building RM B412.60
Cambridge, MA 02138
hcbi_imaging@fas.harvard.edu

The HCBI operates a Wohlwend HPF Compact 03 high pressure freezer (Room B412.60, Northwest Building). This newest version of the Wohlwend Compact has a patented valve system that ensures complete and even freezing of samples up to 500 µm in thickness, more than double other systems on the market. In addition, it is compatible with a wide variety of sample carriers including: 3 mm, 6 mm, copper tubes, omega style carriers, cellulose capillary tubes and sapphire disks.

The HCBI offers access to two EM Automated Freeze Substitution (AFS2) systems from Leica (Room B412.60, Northwest Building). The systems allow for manual or automated freeze substitution, progressive lowering of temperature (PLT), low temperature embedding and UV polymerization of resins. Both AFS systems are equipped with a freeze substitution processor (FSP) unit that automatically dispenses reagents for both freeze substitution and PLT applications. The LED illumination from within the chamber and the attached stereomicroscope allow for viewing and positioning of samples to ensure ease of use.