Facile assembly of an affordable miniature multicolor fluorescence microscope made of 3D-printed parts enables detection of single cells.

ABSTRACT: Fluorescence microscopy is one of the workhorses of biomedical research and laboratory diagnosis; however, their cost, size, maintenance, and fragility has prevented their adoption in developing countries or low-resource settings. Although significant advances have decreased their size, cost and accessibility, their designs and assembly remain rather complex. Here, inspired on the simple mechanism from a nut and a bolt, we report the construction of a portable fluorescence microscope that operates in bright-field mode and in three fluorescence channels: UV, green, and red. It is assembled in under 10 min from only six 3D printed parts, basic electronic components, a microcomputer (Raspberry Pi) and a camera, all of which can be readily purchased in most locations or online for US $122. The

SUBMITTER: Tristan-Landin SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6786622 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature