High-throughput optical microscopy is currently transforming the research fields of genetics, drug discovery and neuroscience. Due to challenges with large lens design, no standard microscope can capture more than 50 megapixels per image snapshot, which makes it impossible to simultaneously image at cellular-resolution over a multi-centimeter viewing area (field of view, FOV). To enable cellular resolution imaging over fields of view 10s of cm in diameter, we are utilizing an array of miniaturized cameras, tiled in a 12x8 configuration and collectively called the micro-camera array microscope (MCAM). Each camera is individually addressable and controllable to enable rapid acquisition over the fields of view as large as 20cm in diameter, providing us with gigapixel-scale snapshot images. Preliminary applications for the MCAM are being developed for behavioral imaging of zebrafish larvae, in collaboration with Prof. Eva Naumann in the Duke School of Medicine and Dr. Tim Dunn in Duke Statistical Science.
If you are interested in our extreme wide-field-of-view microscope and think you have an interesting application for us, please feel free to get in touch!