Gel imaging system for biomedical research of novel fluorophores
Background:
This project is to design and implement a gel imaging system with fully customizable optical filters that will be user controlled to move in and out of the gel imaging system. This black box system will mount over various commercial UV transilluminator models and allow image capture on any standard smartphone camera. This gel imaging system is used to enable research on biomedically relevant fluorophores called nanoclusters. These nanoclusters can fluorescence at various wavelength, necessitating the customizable set of optical filters. This system will address the insufficiencies in current commercial systems as well as remain low-cost.
Existing Solutions/Background Research:
Most common manufacturers of gel imagers include: Azure, BioRady, ThermoFisher, UVP, Sygene, Vilber
- Most commonly a cube shape with tray to insert the gel film
- Touch screen to capture built-in camera or place to hold smart phone for camera capture
Ultimately these are thousands of dollars and often lack the sophistication and optical filters necessary for our sponsor's lab research.
Goal and Objectives:
Our team plans to design a gel imaging machine that will attach to various transilluminators, easily customize several filters, and enable cellphones to take pictures of the gel sheet attached to the transilluminator. The filter swapper will need to incorporate several considerations such as: capacity to hold several lenses at once, holding multiple lenses in a row at once, filter stacking abilities, and filter protection from wear and tear. The box design must incorporate several transilluminator sizes and designs, encapsulate other design components, and should be compact in size that is easy for storage in Copp’s lab. The universal phone mount must not damage the phone and be easily adjustable and accessible to take photos while the product is in use.
Objectives:
- Identify subsystems and components (11/7)
- Problem Definition Presentation (10/29)
- Complete Bill of Materials (11/21)
- Preliminary CAD Design (11/14)
- Preliminary Design Review (11/14)
- Proof of Concept (11/27)
- Q1 Report (12/19)
- Completed Manufacturing (12/5)
- Pilot Testing and Redesign (First Round -12/12, Second Round- 1/27, Further Rounds if necessary)
- Final Design CAD (2/17)
- Final Design Assembly (2/24)
- Q2 Report (3/1)
Stakeholder Needs and Expectations:
- Able to implement various phones for imaging
- Able to implemement and store various filters
- Able to be used with various illuminators
- Able to switch filters into the storage without external tools
- Able to swap filters for viewing without external tools
- Size efficient
- Easy to set up
- Easy to operate
- Durable
- The box mitigates the transmission of UV and ambient light
- Does not damage filters, transilluminator, or phone
Team Contacts:
Louis Kabe: lkabe@uci.edu
Nick Buzby: nbuzby@uci.edu
Olivia Hibson: ohibson@uci.edu
Sponsor/Advisor:
Prof. Stacy Copp: stacy.copp@uci.edu