Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)

Take a closer look:

• Find high-resolution, public domain images of viruses/bacteria in CDC’s Public Health Image Library, including transmission electron microscope images of coronaviruses and the hepatitis A virus.
• From where do up-close images of viruses and bacteria we see in the news come? Learn more from this National Institutes of Health article.
• View transmission electron microscope micrographs of rotavirus particles, the virus that causes rabies, variola virus particles, and poxvirus particles. Then, take a look at what a transmission electron microscope looks like from the other side of the lens: in the 1960s and present day.
• Learn how to collect and prepare specimens for electron microscopy.

From the source:

• Take a close look at how electron microscopy was used to confirm poxvirus infections during the smallpox eradication campaign.
• View a historic image of an electron microscope in use during 1988 laboratory studies of AIDS and a transmission electron microscopeimage of HIV from Global Health Chronicles, A CDC Museum/Emory University collaboration.

Then and now:

• Learn how electron microscopy has aided CDC scientists in identifying the causative agents during critical infectious disease outbreaks.
• Read how transmission electron microscopy was used to understand molecular mechanisms of the severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2002.

Give it a try:

• Want to try your hand at microscopy? Check out this CDC microscopy training course.