VitroTEM's Naiad tour showcases revolutionary graphene liquid cell fabrication technology across top US research institutes

In March 2023, the VitroTEM team embarked on a tour of several prestigious research institutes across the United States. The purpose of this tour was to showcase their latest innovation, Naiad - an automated system for the fabrication of graphene liquid cells, and to demonstrate its transformative capabilities in facilitating the acquisition of high-resolution TEM images. Some of the institutes visited by the VitroTEM team were Harvard, MIT Nano, the University of Illinois, and The University of Maryland.

The response from the TEM community was fantastic, in the potential of Naiad to streamline their research processes. By automating the graphene handling steps and generating efficient and rapid high-quality samples, Naiad technology eliminates the difficulties faced by researchers trying to adopt graphene into their research. Additionally, the longevity of the samples within graphene liquid cells fabricated by Naiad ensures prolonged stability at room temperature, solving many of the cumbersome steps necessary for cryo-handling of samples.

The automation provided by Naiad has the potential to greatly enhance the accessibility and efficiency of the graphene in TEM samples, opening new avenues of research in the fields of cryo-EM as well as materials science. “Many researchers have experienced graphene handling as a forbidding hurdle to using graphene liquid cells. As we were demonstrating the automation of the graphene handling, it was amazing to see the researchers’ imagination spring to life. Old, shelved research ideas suddenly became possible and new ideas sprung to life as we were discussing,” says Pauline van Deursen, CTO of VitroTEM.

The many energetic discussions with researchers during the tour indicate the potential for fruitful collaborations in the future. The tour served as a platform to showcase Naiad system and also as an opportunity to build relationships with the scientific community in the US.

As pioneers of the automated system that generates high-resolution liquid-phase TEM samples, VitroTEM aims to contribute to significant advances that benefit the collective knowledge of the scientific community.