Reuse GRIN lens

[Shion Yuki]

How am I supposed to clean and reuse the GRIN lens from Inscopix? 

[Daniel Aharoni]

Hi.

Yes, the general consensus is that GRIN lenses can be reused as long as their top and bottom surfaces remain in decent shape. After extracting the lens, we usually go through multiple baths of Acetone and then Ethenol to remove any glue and cement. You want to inspect the top and bottom surfaces of the lens afterwards and make sure there are no large scratches or chips.

[Paul Vander]

Agree with the above. I also soak in 1% tergazyme which is great for removing residual blood. 

Paul Vander

Pronouns: he/him/his

PhD Candidate, NIA F99 fellow

Correa lab | https://sites.lifesci.ucla.edu/ibp-correalab/

Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology PhD Program

University of California, Los Angeles

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[Shion Yuki]

Hi, 

Thank you for your response! That's great that I can reuse the GRIN lens. What do you all usually use to check the surfaces of the lens after cleaning? Do you use a miniscope to see the surface? Or any other way that I could use?   

Best, 

Shion

[Sandra Poulson]

Hi All,

So you use acetone and ethanol, and optionally a 1% tergazyme to eliminate blood. Can I piggyback the question and ask what kind of surface do you use to "catch" the lens to prevent scratching? E.g. if I were to do this in a glass Petri dish it runs the risk of chipping the glass. Do you use a different material? And do you use rubberized forceps or anything like this to prevent scratching?

Thank you!

Sandra

[Daniel Aharoni]

You can just inspect the surfaces under a stereoscope visually. As for where to 'catch' and hold these lenses, they are actually quite robust to damage but a good option is lens paper or lens cleaning paper. You can get this on amazon or optics websites and they are designed to not scratch glass and also not leave any fibers on the lenses.