Q: How get I get priority scheduling for my COVID-19 work?

A: Starting May 1, 2021, COVID-19 will no longer have priority scheduling.  COVID-19 projects are welcome to continue under the standard project submission as described on the progress report submission page.  New COVID-19 projects can be submitted through the proposal submission page and will be reviewed by their respective institution.

Q: What equipment is currently available for use?

A: Two Vitrobots are available in the sample prep room located in SGM B02A.  The Talos Arctica and both Titan Krios microscopes are available for sample screening and data collection.

Q: How do I get access to the equipment?

A: Harvard, Boston Children's Hospital, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Massachusetts General Hospital communities are part of the Consortium that founded the facility.  If you are not a member of the listed institutions, you are welcome to use the facility at the External Academic rate.  Please see the policies page for more information or email cryoem@crystal.harvard.edu for more information.

To access the Vitrobots, you can request training in the CryoEM PPMS (https://ppms.us/harvard-hms).  Once you have logged in, there is an option on your Home page called 'request a training'.  After you submit the form titled 'Request Vitrobot training', a staff member will contact you to schedule training.

• Rapid Access sessions are ongoing and do not require a proposal!  To accommodate users who are interested in shorter timeslots in the Harvard Cryo-EM Center, we are now offering shorter timeslots to independently screen and/or collect a short dataset.  We will also offer training during these sessions. Please request a Rapid Access session on the CryoEM PPMS Home page: https://ppms.us/harvard-hms.
• To access the facility microscopes for independent sample screening or data collection, you need to submit a project proposal (https://cryoem.hms.harvard.edu/proposal).  Each proposal will be reviewed by a committee at the user's home institution or by the HMS review committee for external users.  Approved projects will be allowed up to 4 sessions on the specified microscope.  After these allotted sessions, users will need additional approval to book further sessions for the same project (https://cryoem.hms.harvard.edu/progress-report).  For more details, please see our policies page.

Q: How much microscope time does my institution get?

A: We generally follow these allocation charts when scheduling time and we allow time for external academic and commercial users.

For further information, please contact cryoem@crystal.harvard.edu.