RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Versatile, do-it-yourself, low-cost spinning disk confocal microscope
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2021.09.04.458950
DO 10.1101/2021.09.04.458950
A1 Aaron R. Halpern
A1 Min Yen Lee
A1 Marco D. Howard
A1 Marcus A. Woodworth
A1 Philip R. Nicovich
A1 Joshua C. Vaughan
YR 2021
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/09/12/2021.09.04.458950.abstract
AB Confocal microscopy is an invaluable tool for 3D imaging of biological specimens, however, accessibility is often limited to core facilities due to the high cost of the hardware. We describe an inexpensive do-it-yourself (DIY) spinning disk confocal microscope (SDCM) module based on a commercially fabricated chromium photomask that can be added on to a laser-illuminated epifluorescence microscope. The SDCM achieves strong performance across a wide wavelength range (~400-800 nm) as demonstrated through a series of biological imaging applications that include conventional microscopy (immunofluorescence, small-molecule stains, and fluorescence in situ hybridization) and super-resolution microscopy (single-molecule localization microscopy and expansion microscopy). This low-cost and simple DIY SDCM is well-documented and should help increase accessibility to confocal microscopy for researchers.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.