Facility for Electron Microscopy Research

The Facility for Electron Microscopy Research (FEMR) is a world-class, open-access electron microscopy facility at McGill University. The FEMR offers a comprehensive range of electron microscopy (EM) resources, expertise, and services for routine and advanced sample preparation, electron microscopy imaging, and analysis of biological matter, hydrated and beam-sensitive materials, and ambient temperature materials.

Operation of the FEMR is made possible by the support of the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), NanoQuebec-Quebec Nanotechnology Infrastructure (NQ-QNI), Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), Natural Science & Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada, Fonds de recherche Santé Québec, McGill University, and Galenvs Sciences Inc.

The FEMR builds on a long and successful history of supporting researchers throughout the region and beyond (see History). The FEMR is essential in maintaining McGill at the leading edge of multidisciplinary research, education, and training in the environmental, life, materials, and physical sciences. The success of the FEMR results from the combination of scientific expertise, experienced technical staff, and well-maintained, state-of-the-art research infrastructure. This infrastructure facilitates both cutting-edge and more traditional tools in EM research.

The FEMR is a founding member of the Québec Network for Materials Electron Microscopy (QNMEM), a consortium established by McGill University, Concordia University, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Université de Montréal, Université de Sherbrooke, Université Laval, and École technologie supérieure to pursue world-class science, developing world-class technologies, and maintaining outstanding capabilities in operations research via a $26M CFI investment across the network. The infrastructure and expertise adapted to advanced materials of the FEMR within the QNMEM bridge the gap between the materials, physical, and life sciences are unique in Canada.

The FEMR also complements other national and regional facilities in Canada, such as the Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy at McMaster University and the National Institute for Nanotechnology at the University of Alberta. In addition to providing expertise and services to industrial and commercial sectors that lead to increased global competitiveness for Québec and Canada, the FEMR delivers an interdisciplinary, innovative research environment where world‐leading scientists conduct top-level investigations using cutting-edge characterization imaging, analytical and nanofabrication technologies. Such objectives create opportunities to foster and build creative, interdisciplinary collaboration, especially between academia and industry. The FEMR and its members already have well-established academic collaborative research partnerships, nationally and internationally, with many companies in key industrial sectors of the Québec and Canadian economies.

The FEMR infrastructure is used in four research domains - environmental sciences, life and biomedical sciences, materials sciences and engineering, and physical and chemical sciences. Some of the major research programs that currently access the FEMR regularly are those affiliated with the following centres: Groupe de Recherche Axé sur la Structure des Protéines (GRASP), Centre for Bone and Periodontal Research, Centre for Self-Assembled Chemical Structures (CSACS), Biomedical Science and Technology Research Group, Membrane Protein Research Group, REGAL-McGill Research Centre on Aluminum REGAL, and others.