The miEye: Bench-top super-resolution microscope with cost-effective equipment

The K2: Open-source simultaneous triple-color TIRF microscope for live-cell and single-molecule imaging

“…Commercially available fluorescence microscopes for state-of-the-art single-molecule and super-resolution microscopy are often expensive to acquire and lack the flexibility to incorporate custom features beyond already available add-ons. In recent years, a number of open-source projects originated within the super-resolution fluorescence microscopy community, facilitating the design and construction of custom microscopes from the bottom-up [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Additionally, stand-alone solutions for various sub-components of single-molecule microscopes have been published as open source hardware projects (e.g.…”

“…The transition from epifluorescence to TIRF imaging is easy to recognize (see [34] for a detailed description), as interference patterns caused by specs of dust scattering the coherent excitation laser beam, become visible. In sparse single-molecule type of samples, these interference patterns are not visible, but the transition is marked by a sharp increase in the signal-to-background ratio [5]. HILO imaging, where the laser beam penetrates the sample at an angle instead of being totally internally reflected, is typically performed close to the TIR setting (i.e.…”

An open-source microscopy framework for simultaneous control of image acquisition, reconstruction, and analysis

“…Some examples are controlling multiple cameras independently, synchronizing multiple hardware devices, performing simultaneous image acquisition and reconstruction, or controlling specialized devices such as spatial light modulators or point detectors. Python-based software alternatives have been developed [16] , [17] , [18] , [19] , making debugging and contributing more convenient in contrast to Java.…”

“…We provide the design files containing the main functionality of the file watcher as well as its integration with napari and ImSwitch. Furthermore, it can be easily implemented in other python-based software [16] , [17] , [18] both for acquisition and reconstruction. For example, the user can develop their own python scripts for image reconstruction and add them to the workflow by including the file watcher model.…”

The K2: Open-source simultaneous triple-color TIRF microscope for live-cell and single-molecule imaging

“…The transition from epifluorescence to TIRF imaging is easy to recognize (see [30] for a detailed description), as interference patterns caused by specs of dust scattering the coherent excitation laser beam, become visible. In sparse single-molecule type of samples, these interference patterns are not visible, but the transition is marked by a sharp increase in the signal-to-background ratio [5]. HILO imaging, where the laser beam penetrates the sample at an angle instead of being totally internally reflected, is typically performed close to the TIR setting ( i.e.…”