$240 fluorescence microscope

[Eric Ma]

Hey everybody,

I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but PLoS One has got a really cool article on a $240 fluorescence microscope!

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011890

Cheers,
Eric
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[Cory Tobin]

> I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but PLoS One has got a really
> cool article on a $240 fluorescence microscope!
> http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011890

Unfortunately they didn't include instructions on how to build it :(
Although, in the "Competing Interests" section it says that the
authors have applied for a patent on the technology. So maybe the
information is out there somewhere. Anyone good at digging up patent
applications?

-Cory

[Eric Young]

Don't really have time to read that article myself, but if you can
give me the name(s) of the person or company applying for the patent I
can probably find it this evening or maybe at lunchtime today.

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[Simon Quellen Field]

Just looking at the photos of the device it is obvious how to build it.

The differences between this and an epi-fluorescence microscope are

that a blue LED is placed where the bright field light source is normally

placed, instead of using an objective with a beam splitter as both the

condenser and the objective.

This means you can use cheap objectives, but the sample has to be transparent

to blue light, and it is lit from below instead of above.

There is a filter to block the blue light and only let the longer wavelengths

through.

I'll be covering a similar design in my book on microscopy, but using a 405 nanometer

laser as the light source (from a BluRay disk player). My design can be retrofit into

an existing microscope, or can be part of the homemade microscope I will be describing.

You can follow the progress on the book as I write it at "http://micro.sci-toys.com".

The printed-on-paper version will come out in 2011.

On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 11:29 AM, Cory Tobin <cory....@gmail.com> wrote:

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[JonathanCline]

On Aug 10, 11:29 am, Cory Tobin <cory.to...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm not sure if this has already been posted, but PLoS One has got a really
> > cool article on a $240 fluorescence microscope!
> >http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0011890
>
> Unfortunately they didn't include instructions on how to build it :(
> Although, in the "Competing Interests" section it says that the
> authors have applied for a patent on the technology.

Additional important point is the funding source: " Support was
provided through a grant [...] through the Undergraduate Science
Education Program." If undergrads built it, there's not that much
novel intellectual property involved. Also, they used a $800 digital
camera (Canon G9; quoted from buy.com ) to take the pictures-- from
the device stated as costing under $300 to build. They could have
chosen a cheaper make of digital camera, to be more impressive.


## Jonathan Cline
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## Mobile: +1-805-617-0223
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[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

Reviving this old thread :D

Does anyone have an idea where to get a cheap flurescence microscope? The "cheapest" one on ebay is ~900$.

I could hack my own cheap microscope but a) possibility to destroy it, b) possibility to burn my eyes with the uv light...

[Nathan McCorkle]

Take blue LED gel illuminator and place it under microscope with
sample in place of a gel?

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[Andreas Stuermer]

Nice idea ;)

Will get my home gel illuminator soon anyway.

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[Sebastian Cocioba]

Electron Microscopy Sciences sells an adapter for dissection microscopes to become UV. Its just a flex-light with UV LED. I'm sure you could easily hack some things together to make a similar product. Have you thought of using the 3d printable microscope and add a blue LED like previously suggested? I wonder if visible UV can damage eyes...the 390nm spectral ballpark range.

Sebastian S. Cocioba
CEO & Founder
New York Botanics, LLC
Plant Biotech R&D

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From: Andreas Stuermer
Sent: 12/6/2013 7:10 AM
To: diy...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [DIYbio] Re: $240 fluorescence microscope

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[Andreas Stuermer]

> I wonder if visible UV can damage eyes...the 390nm spectral ballpark range.

Probably yes, but not as much as higher energy UV. Wear sunglases when looking into the microscope?

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[Mac Cowell]

You could start with this affordable 2000x microscope: http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004QEFO1Q

The TU DELFT iGEM 2013 team prototyped a diy "typhoon" fluorescence scanning microscope they called zephyr. The XY stage was superfluous but I thought the optics they figured out was really interesting. The got a well-matched high-power LED and dicroic mirror and emission filter and mounted them in a simple integrated light path. Perhaps those components could be combined with the camera mount of the above microscope.

http://2013.igem.org/Team:TU-Delft/Zephyr

Mac

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[Brian Degger]

the costs of the optics was still fairly high, think $600-$1000 (havent done the adding up)from the bom on http://2013.igem.org/Team:TU-Delft/Zephyr_How

520nm Bandpass Filter, 36nm Bandpass, OD6 Blocking, 25mm Dia, Stock No. #67-030	Emission filter	1	link 1
472nm Bandpass Filter, 30nm Bandpass, OD6 Blocking, 25mm Dia, Stock No. #67-027	Excitation filter	1	link 2
495nm Dichroic Filter, 25.2 x 35.6mm, Stock No. #67-079	Dichroic mirror	1	link 3
4X DIN Plan Commercial Grade Objective, Stock No. #67-706	Objective	1	link 4
10X DIN Wide Field Microscope Eyepiece, Stock No. #36-130	Eyepiece	1	link 5

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[Mac Cowell]

Well, they thought a commercial typhoon laser scanner was like $100k+, so $1-2k BOM made sense to them. Just depends on how DIY you want to get.

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[Mega [Andreas Stuermer]]

> Just depends on how DIY you want to get.

Always the same trade-off between diy efforts (and risk of destryoing the original hardware) and money^^

[Matthew Harbowy]

I think there are a lot of lessons that can be taken from how Amscope upgrades their 200$ microscope to a 2500$ fluorescent microscope, without destroying the original hardware or ones eyesight

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B007LBEN4K/ref=mp_s_a_1_22?qid=1386528322&sr=8-22&pi=AC_SX110_SY165_QL70

First: use a webcam on a trinocular mount.

Second: use an orange shield. 

The ability to use colored glass filters in the light path is the major safety and usability upgrade, and I bet that orange filters or cover slips above the sample could solve this even better. A little care and attention to your own hardware's details and you should get great results. You can also buy the upgraded fluorescent objectives: http://www.microscopenet.com/fluor-objective-fluorescent-microscopes-p-439.html?gclid=CLuf_52pobsCFW0V7AoddBcA1w

Matt

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[Simon Quellen Field]

You can't put a filter between the coverslip and the objective. Microscope objectives are make for particular cover slip thicknesses (that thickness is usually printed under the magnification number on the objective). The thickness of the coverslip changes the optics, so the objectives are made to accomodate that.

I have never heard of UV blocking cover slips. But it is easy to put filters in the light path above the objective, such as at the bottom of the eyepiece, or in front of the camera. I often use my SLR without a lens, so the only thing between the camera sensor and the subject is the objective lens. That leaves a lot of room for putting in filters (and you get a much better camera than the ones they ship with microscopes).

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