Microscopy awaits you...

Fluorescence microscopy has become a ubiquitous part of biological research and synthetic biology, but hardware can often be large and prohibitively expensive. This is particularly true for labs with small budgets, including those in the DIY Bio community and developing countries. Queuing systems imposed in labs for use of a few expensive microscopes can make research even more laborious and time-consuming than it needs to be. Furthermore, this makes it almost impossible to perform time-lapse imaging or imaging in environments such as in an incubator or in a fume hood. We aim to provide a well documented, affordable, physically compact, easily modifiable and high quality brightflied/fluorescence microscope to address all of these problems. We are designing it in a modular fashion such that it can be used standalone and also be incorporated into larger frameworks, with various pluggable stages.

The mechanics of our microscope will be 3D printable, and all other parts will be cheap and easy to source. The figure below shows our basic set-up: the sensor and fluorescence cube will move in the Z direction to achieve the necessary focus, whilst the sample will move in the X and Y directions (in order to achieve this translation, we will use Dr Richard Bowman's innovative method, which exploits the flexibility of the 3D printed parts).

As proof-of-concept, we will develop a fluorescent cube for wild-type GFP and one for RFP. They will be interchangeable as necessary, and can be removed for bright-field imaging. We have achieved 4 micron resolution, both in bright-field and fluorescent modes. We are also developing user-friendly software to control the microscope and automate image processing. We aim to leverage the full computational potential of a digital microscope, carefully considering functional UX design to allow control (locally and also over a network) via a Google Maps-like interface and implementing background image processing, annotation and stitching, as well as allowing fully autonomous operation. As a proof of principle, we are also developing automated screening systems on our microscope architecture.

We believe that everyone should have access to good education and facilities, regardless of financial status: this is why we want to bring you the best possible low-cost microscope.