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EngBio Forum - Practical Technologies: Oblique Light Sheets and Trapped Cells

  • Online Department of Plant Sciences Cambridge United Kingdom (map)

Part of a monthly series of workshops exploring technologies at the interface of biology and engineering, academia and industry. The series provides practical advice on how to make the most of the latest biological technologies, with a particular focus on Open Science and how shared tools and resources can catalyse progress in commercial and non-profit environments.


Oblique Light Sheets and Trapped Cells

Crossbill: a single objective light-sheet microscopy platform for everyone

Prof. Manish Kumar, BIOS Lab, Center for Sensors, Instrumentation and Cyber Physical Systems Engineering (SeNSE), Indian Institute of Technology Delhi

Prof. Manish Kumar runs the newly-established bio-imaging & optical systems (BIOS) Research Lab in SeNSE, IIT Delhi. BIOS is an interdisciplinary lab with focusing on bio-imaging and optical instrumentation. Experimental optics forms the heart of their research. They develop novel optical microscopy, imaging and sensing techniques. They strive to invent and turn their invention(s) into user friendly instrument(s). They rely on optical, optomechanical, electrical, DIY electronics, and computational tools. The lab's motto is: "Invent, Build, Disseminate, Repeat." Prof. Kumar will be discussing his work on the crossbill microscope, an open access single objective light-sheet microscopy platform that combines a new optical configuration, open hardware assembly, a systematic alignment protocol, and dedicated control software to provide a compact, versatile, high resolution microscope.

Microfluidics technologies for imaging individual cells in suspension culture

Dr. Somenath Bakshi, Smart Microscopy Lab, University of Cambridge

Dr. Somenath Bakshi runs the newly-established Smart Microscopy Lab in the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. The SMart Microscopy Lab takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyze and improve control in bacterial cells. Specifically, they develop methods for high-throughput time-lapse imaging and single-molecule counting and use them to study how bacteria deal with external and internal fluctuations. These studies are also helping them to design, characterize, and improve synthetic control circuits. Dr. Bakshi will be discussing his work using microfluidics for high-throughput screening of single bacteria.