Hello all! I am an undergraduate in an applied physical sciences lab at my university, and our lab has been developing an entirely undergrad-run OpenFlexure project. To begin, we made a standard OpenFlexure microscope and a fluorescence OpenFlexure microscope with a Delta Stage. The standard microscope works super well, and we are able to get images on the fluorescence microscope but are still working on some alignment and motor issues.
I began a new closely related project this semester: creating a mechanical molecular stamper that can function on top of an OpenFlexure Delta stage. The goal of the stamper is to create Janus beads as seen in this paper for some phagocytosis experiments that our lab is doing. We also want the stamper to be made from commonly found lab equipment and 3D printed parts, to be in the spirit of OpenFlexure. It’s not exactly as low cost if one is ordering all the parts, but hopefully a lab that wants to make something like this can find most of these parts in their own lab. It’s still a work in progress, but as we go on we’ll make some documentation so others can make one too. Here’s the setup that we currently have:
To demonstrate its mechanical capabilities I did a little test where I dried some fluorescent beads onto a stamp and then pressed that down onto a target glass slide with very few beads on it, and saw some beads transfer from the stamp to the slide. Here are before, during, and after pictures from that:
Although the test isn’t super related to our end goal, it is neat to see the process happening viewed through an OpenFlexure microscope.
Another undergrad is working on the project over the summer, and may post another update if a lot of changes are made. For now though I’m excited to share the progress that our lab has made on this project, and I’d love to hear if anyone is interested in the project or doing something similar in their own lab!