普通手机也能变身为荧光显微镜

时间：2009年8月10日

来源：生物通

编辑推荐：

加利福尼亚大学伯克利分校的研究人员最近开发出一种小巧的荧光显微镜，可以附在普通的照相手机上。4月份，研究小组首次展示了最初的亮视场显微镜模型，并将它命名为CellScope。最新的版本增加了荧光显微镜的功能。

荧光显微镜比标准的光学显微镜需要更多装置，如滤光片和特殊的光源，因此也更贵。在Dan Fletcher教授的研究论文中，他们展示了如何利用现有的照相机和相对廉价的组件，在手机上安装一个完整的荧光系统。下图即为手机显微镜的结构示意图、雏形和拍到的图像。

CellScope利用小巧的显微镜镜头在照相手机上拍照。荧光显微镜就用LED作为光源。滤光片为460 nm，能激发标记结核分枝杆菌（Mycobacterium tuberculosis）的绿色荧光染料。研究人员成功捕获了这种细菌的荧光图像，以及镰刀型血细胞和疟原虫的亮视场图像。疟原虫大家应该很熟悉吧，它是引起疟疾的元凶。这些图像是用320万像素的照相手机拍的，空间分辨率为1.2微米。

这种手机型荧光显微镜适用于医疗条件差的地区。记录下的图像可以立即分析，或无线传输到诊疗中心，进行远程诊断。该研究小组目前还在开发更坚固的CellScope，希望用在更广泛的现场测试。

这个新发明刊登在近期的PLoS ONE上。请点击文章标题查看原文。（生物通余亮）

原文摘要：

Mobile Phone Based Clinical Microscopy for Global Health Applications

摘要：Light microscopy provides a simple, cost-effective, and vital method for the diagnosis and screening of hematologic and infectious diseases. In many regions of the world, however, the -required equipment is either unavailable or insufficiently portable, and operators may not possess adequate training to make full use of the images obtained. Counterintuitively, these same regions are often well served by mobile phone networks, suggesting the possibility of leveraging portable, camera-enabled mobile phones for diagnostic imaging and telemedicine. Toward this end we have built a mobile phone-mounted light microscope and demonstrated its potential for clinical use by imaging P. falciparum-infected and sickle red blood cells in brightfield and M. tuberculosis-infected sputum samples in fluorescence with LED excitation. In all cases resolution exceeded that necessary to detect blood cell and microorganism morphology, and with the tuberculosis samples we took further advantage of the digitized images to demonstrate automated bacillus counting via image analysis software. We expect such a telemedicine system for global healthcare via mobile phone – offering inexpensive brightfield and fluorescence microscopy integrated with automated image analysis – to provide an important tool for disease diagnosis and screening, particularly in the developing world and rural areas where laboratory facilities are scarce but mobile phone infrastructure is extensive.

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