After hundreds of years, the most common, basic microscopes still operate by means of the same old hardware: the lens. But what if you could do away with that lens and create a microscope that fits on a cell phone? That’s what researchers led by Aydogan Ozcan at U.C.L.A. have developed. Ozcan recently won an NSF (National Science Foundation) Early Career Development award for his work.
Normal microscopes image cells themselves. But Ozcan’s team is imaging their shadows. Tissue cells and bacteria are semi-transparent—light penetrating through cells causes shadings and reveals texture. Ozcan uses an LED as his light source, creating cellular shadows. An algorithm turns those shadows into an image of the cells.
