Fluorescence microscopy has widespread applications across biological sciences. It has been routinely used for cell counting, which provides a preliminary diagnostic test for many infectious diseases. Conventional fluorescence microscopes are bulky, expensive, time-intensive and laborious. They often require trained operators to acquire and analyze data. We report a compact automated digital fluorescence microscopy system,i-scope, for cell counting applications. Thei-scopeemploys a total internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) mode of sample illumination, along with a brightfield mode. It has a magnification of 30X, an optical resolution of ∼0.2μm/pixel and offers sample scanning over 20 mm × 20 mm. A custom-written program enables automated image acquisition and analysis, thereby enhancing ease of operation. It has a compact form-factor and has been developed into a standalone system with a processing unit, screen, and other accessories to offer a portable and economic point-of-care diagnostic solution in low-resource settings. We analysed the performance of the i-scopefor milk somatic cell enumeration and benchmarked it against that of a conventional fluorescence microscope.
Keywords: TIRF; automated; cell enumeration; compact; fluorescence microscope.
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