NetNotes


Edited by Bob Price University of South Carolina School of Medicine Bob.Price@uscmed.sc.edu


Selected postings are from recent discussion threads included in


the Microscopy (http://www.microscopy.com), Confocal Microscopy (https://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A0=confocalmicroscopy), and 3DEM (https://mail.ncmir.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/3dem) listservers. Post- ings may have been edited to conserve space or for clarity. Complete list- ings and subscription information can be found at the above websites.


COVID-19 and Cryo-Electron Microscopy 3DEM Listserver Dear all, I apologize for a naive question. I’m not an expert on


viruses. However, I would like to know if there is anything we can do for the researchers working on COVID-19. Tis could be, for example, providing access to microscopes, imaging samples under safe conditions, analyzing images, sharing data, and answering questions. A negative answer will also be helpful, thus we could concentrate on other things. Daniel Levy Daniel.Levy@curie.fr


It is not a naive question; it is a compelling one. If our facilities


will be shut down for months, we should think of ways to make them useful to the research community combatting COVID-19. Perhaps a possibility is to coordinate with virologists who have access to recombi- nant viral proteins that may be imaged by cryo-EM. Alfredo De Biasio adb43@leicester.ac.uk


I think a lot of us are wondering how to be useful during this cri-


sis; a couple of researchers from our institute (and beyond) have set up a COVID-19 crowd-fighting platform: crowdfightcovid19.org; if you are interested in joining us, please find information and contacts below. Celia Plisson celiapliss@yahoo.fr


We are a platform aiming to redirect scientific resources to-


wards the fight against COVID-19 (crowdfightcovid19.org). Tis plat- form has two goals: 1) For scientists at all levels of their career, even if they work in fields completely unrelated to COVID-19, simply fill out a form so that we can contact them if we need their help. 2) Re- searchers already working on COVID-19 ask us to perform any task for them, for free. Tese tasks can include labor intensive tasks (an- notating data, analyzing images manually, etc.), answering questions, or setting up new techniques. Everything is coordinated by scientists highly skilled in the field of interest, so the input we need from them will be kept to a minimum. Please, have a look to our platform (crowd- fightcovid19.org) and sign up if you want! Crowdfight COVID-19 Crowdfightcovid19+contact@gmail.com


Another consideration might be to make your computational


resources available for data analysis related to COVID-19. We have made our GPU cluster available to our bioinformaticians for base- calling nanopore sequence data. Centres engaged in ramping up their sequencing throughput may not have the computational resources to match their data output. David Bhella david.bhella@glasgow.ac.uk


70 doi:10.1017/S1551929520001029


Certainly, we should make clear that our infrastructure is open and


ready for the challenge. Indeed, let me reiterate something you already know. Instruct (the European Research Infrastructure for Structural Biology) is offering its microscopy platforms in a priority manner for COVID-19 projects. Please, look at the Instruct Catalogue website. Unfortunately, the situation is such that none of these platforms are “operating as usual”, but if you feel any of them may be of help in your COVID-19 research, please contact Instruct coordination at admin@ instruct-eric.eu. Jose Maria Carazo carazo@cnb.csic.es


Tis is to announce that we are opening our cryo-EM facilities


for COVID-19 projects at the Centre for Integrative Biology (http:// www.igbmc.fr/grandesstructures/cbi/), Illkirch/Strasbourg, France, which hosts the French and European Infrastructures for Integrated Structural Biology, FRISBI (http://frisbi.eu/), Instruct-ERIC https:// www.structuralbiology.eu/) and iNext-Discovery (https://instruct-eric. eu/news/eu-inext-discovery-grant-provides-technologies-for-key- research-in-structural-biology/). Research can include, for example, work on COVID-19 related enzyme targets, genome-free capsids, membrane receptor complexes, antibody complexes, etc. (i.e., non- infectious samples). Cryo-EM samples (on grids) should be sent in with dewars as no on-site visits by users are possible. We also offer freezing and screening of grids for purified samples. Apply please see below. Bruno Klaholz klaholz@igbmc.fr


COVID-19 and Core Microscopy Facilities Confocal Microscopy Listserver GermanBioImaging (GerBI-GMB, Society for Microscopy and


Image Analysis) has improved and updated the “Recommendations for Operating Imaging Core Facilities in a research environment during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic”. Tis document is now finalized and endorsed by DGE, the German Society for Electron Microscopy; DGZ, the German Society for Cell Biology; and DGfZ, the German Society for Cytometry). More information is available at https://www.gerbi-gmb.de/Corona or by direct download of the PDF version at https://www.gerbi-gmb.de/sites/ default/files/2020-04/GerBI-GMB_Corona_Recomm_2020-01-04. pdf. In parallel I have asked the big four microscope companies (Nikon, Leica, Olympus and Zeiss) for recommendations on cleaning microscopes in Corona times and compatibility of cleaning procedures and fluids with microscope parts. Tere was fast response from all of them indicating that they are or will work on it. Leica has a webpage: https://www.leica- microsystems.com/science-lab/how-to-sanitize-a-microscope Roland Nitschke roland.nitschke@uni-freiburg.de


Tank you for all these great resources! I was wondering if you


or anyone has put some thought on how to train users on the usage of microscopes? When labs start to reopen (at least where they are closed) we will probably have to follow some rules, like staying 6 feet away from each other and, the one-on-one interaction at the microscope might not be an option for some time. Cedric Espenel espenel@stanford.edu


www.microscopy-today.com • 2020 July


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