The Aquilos Cryo-FIB is a delicate microscope used in the study of neurodegenerative diseases at the Manhattanville campus. Due to the instrument's sensitivity to humidity, electromagnetic fields (areas of energy associated with electrical power), and high- and low-frequency sounds, it is housed in a specially retrofitted chamber sixty feet below the Jerome L. Greene Science Center. Previously an underused MRI workshop, the chamber was reconfigured with a magnetic-field cancellation system, which reads the ambient field and produces an opposite, neutralizing field, to prevent electromagnetic interference; a vibration-isolation table, a device containing steel springs and sensors, for stabilization; and floor to ceiling epoxy paint to create an anti-moisture "vapor barrier."
The project was completed in 2020.
