CellScope
A fluorescent microscope built on a cell phone, developed during my PhD in Daniel Fletcher's lab at UC Berkeley. Designed for low-cost remote diagnostics of malaria, sickle cell disease, and tuberculosis. The research was later spun out into CellScope, Inc., which commercialized a smartphone otoscope.
CellScope was a fluorescent microscope built on a cell phone, designed for clinical imaging in places labs cannot reach. Developed during my PhD in Daniel Fletcher's bioengineering lab at UC Berkeley, the device attached compact microscope lenses to a standard mobile phone camera and turned it into an instrument that could capture bright-field images of malaria parasites and sickle red blood cells, and fluorescence images of cells infected with tuberculosis bacteria.
The work was published in 2009 in PLoS ONE. The original research was later spun out into CellScope, Inc. by Erik Douglas and Amy Sheng, which commercialized a smartphone otoscope (Oto HOME) for remote ear exams.
The same regions of the world with limited access to laboratories were already well-served by mobile phone networks. CellScope put clinical-grade imaging on the camera they already carried.