Cryo-EM Facility Use Guidelines and Etiquette

• Facility primetimes hours are 9AM-5PM.
• Only independent users have night and weekend privileges.
• Please be on time for your reservation.
• If you are more than 30 minutes late for your session you will forfeit your reservation.
• No-shows are charged for their reserved time.
• Whenever possible your grids should be ready to go at the start of your microscope reservation.
• Sign up to use any microscope, sample preparation equipment, or wet lab in FOM prior to your arrival.
• Log in to start your time in FOM. Always log off at the end of your time in FOM to make sure your recharge cost is accurate and to signal equipment availability.
• Absolutely no food in the cryo-EM facility and no drinks in the Wet Lab or Vitrobot rooms. Drinks are not to be kept on counters with the microscope controls.
• Please finish your session on time and clean up for the next user.
• If you ever have any doubts about the operation of a piece of equipment, please seek help from a facility staff member.
• Never use force on any piece of equipment, lever, button, etc. Hard physical force is never necessary on any lab equipment. If you sense force is needed, stop what you are doing and seek help from a staff member.
• Never try to diagnose and fix a problem by yourself without consulting with the facility staff.
• Those that do not adhere to the community etiquette and guidelines are subject to suspension of privileges up to outright bans. 

Data retention policy

• Due to the large increase in file sizes and speed of data collection, we can only allow data to be kept on our storage server for up to 30 days after collection has ended.

• This limit applies both to the raw data and any data generated by cryoSPARC if using the facility’s instance.

• We will inform you if any raw data needs to be deleted to make sure you have made a backup. For cryoSPARC, we will delete any mrc files once the limit has been reached, but we will try to retain most metadata needed to recreate the files.

• More information can be found here. 

COVID-19 Related Safety Regulation

• Basic operational rules apply in accordance with the Division of Biology guidelines.

• If you are sick but tested negative for COVID-19, please wear a mask in the facility. 

• If you have tested positive for COVID-19 do not enter the facility. There are options for remote microscope access, so please feel free to contact us if this applies to you.