Rethinking Microscopy Along the Cost and Efficiency Axis

The standard microscope is unique amongst many other inventions of its era, such as the slide rule and pendulum clock, in that it is an ever more vital technology. However, its tried and tested design is imposing significant throughput and cost limitations on modern medicine. I will discuss my group’s recent work on rethinking microscopy from the ground up with the help of high-tech and cheap consumer devices, such as cellphone cameras and graphic processing units. I will report on a self-imaging lensless petri dish technology (ePetri) that is capable of streaming microscopy-level live cell culture images directly out of the incubator. I will also discuss our recent work on Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy - a computational microscopy method that enables a standard microscope to push past its physical optical limitations to provide gigapixel imaging ability.