New high-speed particle tracking tech
Published: 10 August 2020
An interdisciplinary research collaboration involving the laboratory of the Institute's Dr Tansy Hammarton has resulted in the development of novel methodology for high-speed particle tracking within a microfluidic system.
Research involving Institute of Infection, Immunity and Inflammation scientists has resulted in the development of a novel methodology for high-speed particle tracking within a microfluidic system.
The paper, published in Lab on a Chip, is the result of an interdisciplinary collaboration between the laboratories of Dr Tansy Hammarton, Dr Melanie Jimenez (James Watt School of Engineering), and Dr Yoann Altmann (Heriot-Watt University).
Instead of relying on an expensive high-speed camera with a powerful illumination source, PhD student Jessie Howell, from the Hammarton and Jimenez labs, employed a retina-based events camera in conjunction with a standard fluorescence microscope to detect particle movement.
Event cameras can detect changes in light intensity and record spatial and temporal information with low latency and power, and over a wide dynamic range.
Here, Jessie’s proof-of-principle work showed that this event-based sensing method, when coupled with an advanced data processing strategy, allowed particles as small as 1 µm diameter to be detected and tracked within a microfluidic channel using brightfield or fluorescence imaging.
Dr Hammarton explained: "This work opens up many potential future avenues, not only in the engineering field, but also biological applications such as visualising and characterising the Leishmania and trypanosome parasites that we work on in my lab.
"It’s been a highly valuable interdisciplinary collaboration, allowing us to combine our complementary skill sets to develop new technology to help answer some of the biological questions we have.’
Jessie Howell added: "I am delighted with the publication of my first paper on such an interesting and novel approach to imaging.
"It has potential applications in many areas of research so I'm looking forward to seeing what this technology can achieve."
High-speed particle detection and tracking in microfluidic devices using event-based sensing
- Jessie Howell, Tansy C. Hammarton, Yoann Altmann, and Melanie Jimenez
- Lab Chip, 2020, Advance Article, Published 17th July 2020.
- DOI: 10.1039/D0LC00556H
First published: 10 August 2020