A Brief History 

The Ahmanson Advanced Electron 
Microscopy and Imaging Center

In 1971, The Alvin and Fran Larrabee Foundation donated funds to set up the Larrabee Microscopy Center. Dedicated to light microscopy, this Center brought together the equipment and skills for dedicated microscopy research. This was also the year that Los Angeles Foundation of Otology (now the House Ear Institute) set up a joint research venture with the Whittier College Electron Microscopy Laboratory. Using a Hitachi transmission electron microscope, and headed by Fred Linthicum, M.D., research projects using electron microscopy were initiated.

In 1973, the James Irvine Foundation donated $60,000 to enable the LA Foundation of Otology to purchase a Kent-Cambridge scanning electron microscope. A further $29,000 from the Pepper Foundation enabled the purchase of specimen preparation equipment and the establishment of an on-site electron microscopy laboratory at the Foundation's original South Lake St. location. A Philips 301 transmission electron microscope was purchased in 1974 using $35,000 from an anonymous donation and $45,000 from the James Irvine Foundation.

In 1973 Malcolm D. Graham M.D took over as Director of the electron microscopy laboratory. Dr Graham, who had first joined the Institute in September of 1970 as an un-funded research fellow, moved from Victoria, British Columbia to take up this position. In addition to joining the LA Foundation of Otology in 1971, he was also a member of the Otologic Medical Group (now the House Ear Clinic). 

In 1974, the LA Foundation of Otology appointed, as academic consultants, three world experts in electron microscopy. They were David J. Lim, M.D. of Ohio State University, Imrich Friedman, M.D. of Northwick Park Hospital, London, and Fritsof Sjoestrand of UCLA. 

When the LA Foundation for Otology moved to a new building on Lake Street on August 10th 1975, the electron microscopes were left in their original location in a building on the 400 block of South Lake Street. The electron microscopes were moved to the basement of the St. Vincent Nursing Home in 1981 when the Foundation moved there.

Dr. Graham left the Institute (then called the Ear Research Institute) in 1981 to take up an academic position at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Frank Galey, Ph.D. was hired as head of electron microscopy. On September 24th 1980, Dr. Galey co-organized, with Per-G Lundquist or the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, a symposium on electron microscopy of the ear. In 1981 the Institute Annual Report featured an SEM image of the surface or the organ of Corti on the front page.

Wayne Briner, Ph.D., who headed the EM laboratory before being succeeded by Fred Linthicum M.D., replaced Dr. Galey.

In 1987, the Ahmanson Foundation donated funds to replace the original, aging electron microscopes and the laboratory was given its current name, The Ahmanson Advanced Electron Microscopy and Imaging Center.  The EM laboratory was equipped with two new Zeiss electron microscopes, an EM 902 transmission electron microscope and the first digital scanning electron microscope. In 1991, these microscopes were installed in the current HEI building located at the corner of 3rd Street and Alvarado. They remained on the 4th floor of this building until 1999, when they were donated to Cal State LA in Monterey Park.

In October 1998, Paul Webster, Ph.D. was recruited from Yale University School of Medicine to head the electron microscopy laboratory. Under his direction the Zeiss microscopes were replaced, using funds again donated by the Ahmanson Foundation, with two microscopes manufactured by FEI- Philips. The BioTwin CM120 transmission EM and the XL30SFEG scanning EM are currently installed in a newly renovated laboratory on the ground floor of the Institute. This laboratory, which was built to specifications supplied by engineers from FEI-Philips, provides the stable environment required for vibration-free, high-resolution imaging. Installation of these new electron microscopes occurred at the end of 1999. Funds from the Ahmanson Foundation also allowed HEI to purchase new specimen preparation equipment for the electron microscopy laboratory.