MICROSCOPY

CONCEPT

I work in a neuroimaging lab at Washington University in Saint Louis. In the lab, I build systems for imaging the brain. To test these systems, I collect images of lots of different things that aren't brains. Building imaging systems outside of work has also become a hobby of mine. Some of the pictures collected by these systems are pretty cool, so I decided to share them here. All the images shown are from either this microscope or other microscopes that I have assembled. The first couple were actually taken with my iPhone!

CONSTRUCTION

My focus in the lab is two photon microscopy. This scope lets you take images of structures that are tagged with a particular fluorophore. That way you can look at very specific structures in your sample. This microscope requires lots of different optical components (e.g. lenses, mirrors, a powerful laser, objectives, optical filters) that I select and then put together. I spend most my time aligning these optical parts, and synchronizing different electronics. There are also mounts that I get to design and 3D print. Other microscopes I have build are much easier to put together and usually only require the right lenses and a camera.