Choosing the right microscopy modality

Introduction

Choosing the right microscope for your experiment will be a factor both of what the experiment dictates and what the researcher can access. The image below (from Fundamentals of Microscopy by Jermey Sanderson ¹⁴) gives a sense of the sorts of decisions one should consider when choosing a microscope; a more thorough description of the pros and cons of various kinds of microscopes can be found in this tutorial⁵.

Fig. 4 Flow chart to help choose which type of microscope to use. Figure by Jeremy Sanderson. Source ¹⁴

Opportunities for microscopy resource access

While some imaging facilities are open only to members of a single institution, others allow outside visitors or even sponsor visitors to travel to them.

• Advanced Imaging Center - Janelia Research Campus. The AIC was created to give access to the broad scientific community to new imaging instruments that are not commercially available. Proposals can be submitted during open calls at their website.