Robotic microscopy for everyone: the OpenFlexure microscope

Abstract

Optical microscopes are an essential tool for both the detection of disease in clinics, and for scientific analysis. However, in much of the world access to high-performance microscopy is limited by both the upfront cost and maintenance cost of the equipment. Here we present an open-source, 3D-printed, and fully-automated laboratory microscope, with motorised sample positioning and focus control. The microscope is highly customisable, with a number of options readily available including trans-and epi-illumination, polarisation contrast imaging, and epi-florescence imaging. The OpenFlexure microscope has been designed to enable low-volume manufacturing and maintenance by local personnel, vastly increasing accessibility. We have produced over 100 microscopes in Tanzania and Kenya for educational, scientific, and clinical applications, demonstrating that local manufacturing can be a viable alternative to international supply chains that can often be costly, slow, and unreliable.

A modular microarray imaging system for highly specific COVID-19 antibody testing

“…Various low-cost microscopy platforms using portable devices such as cell phone cameras have been recently developed for various applications. In mobile devices, different illumination strategies have been reported including on-axis epi-illumination, 15,16 off-axis inclined illumination, 17 buttcoupling, 18 and total internal reflection. 19 In order to avoid out-of-focus background with these illumination schemes, either the sample is compressed to a thickness of ∼10 μm by mounting it between two glass slides 20 or physical properties of the sample such as plasmonic enhancement due to the presence of a metal surface 17 or total internal reflection due to the presence of a refractive index change are exploited.…”

The OpenFlexure Block Stage: sub-100 nm fibre alignment with a monolithic plastic flexure stage

“…The OpenFlexure Block Stage draws on the OpenFlexure Microscope stage design [7,8] for elements such as the "table" shaped moving stage. The designs mostly uses flexure hinges that pivot about axes that lie in the xy-plane, taking advantage of the anisotropic resolution of typical 3D printers which extrude a bead of plastic that is typically 2-4 times thinner in height than it is in width.…”

A Modular Microarray Imaging System for Highly Specific COVID-19 Antibody Testing

“…Various low-cost microscopy platforms using portable devices such as cell phone cameras have been recently developed for various applications. In mobile devices, different illumination strategies have been reported including on-axis epi-illumination 15,16 , off-axis inclined illumination 17 , butt-coupling 18 , and total internal reflection 19 . In order to avoid out-of-focus background with these illumination schemes, either the sample is compressed to a thickness of ~10 µm by mounting it between two glass slides 20 or physical properties of the sample such as plasmonic enhancement due to the presence of a metal surface 17 or total internal reflection due to the presence of a refractive index change are exploited 19 .…”