On Friday 17 May the Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging celebrated its recent major refurbishment with an opening symposium. The Centre now houses some of the most advanced electron microscopy facilities in Europe, providing a central hub of technology and expertise to King’s researchers, clinicians and collaborators.

The opening symposium at the Greenwood Lecture Theatre featured talks from internationally acclaimed speakers from both physical and life science backgrounds, highlighting King’s diverse research interests and the Centre’s pioneering interdisciplinary approach. Speakers included Professor Richard Henderson, joint winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize in chemistry, Professor R. J. Dwayne Miller, Director of the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter and Professor Pete Nellist, joint Head of Department of the Department of Materials, Oxford University.

From mapping synapses in the brain to imaging quantum dots, the presentations keenly illustrated the diverse applications of electron microscopy.

The Centre is also home to the JEOL Centre for Advanced Technology (JCAT), an international training and development centre in electron microscopy that arose out of the King’s partnership with JEOL. This relationship provides a dynamic environment where new instrumentation can be developed and optimised in partnership with academics which in turn enables innovative and novel research.

Dr Corey Hecksel who works at the Centre commented: “Our close collaboration with JEOL has allowed us to develop and implement new technologies here at the CUI. We are excited to provide King's researchers with the very best in cutting-edge electron microscopy technology.”

For more information on the techniques and equipment available at the Centre for Ultrastructural Imaging please see the Centre’s website https://cui.kcl.ac.uk/.