M. KÜHNEMUND ET AL., NATURE COMMUNICATIONSThe device: Researchers have built a microscope that uses the camera on a cell phone to detect fluorescent products of DNA sequencing reactions in cells and tissues, according to a study published today (January 16) in Nature Communications. The mobile microscope can detect a point mutation in the KRAS gene that occurs in more than 30 percent of colon cancers.
This study shows that “one can use a very simple imaging device such as the mobile phone to record DNA sequencing reactions,” said coauthor Mats Nilsson of Stockholm University in Sweden.
The microscope contains two battery-powered lasers for the detection of different fluorophores and a white LED for bright-field imaging. The cell phone’s camera lens and an external lens provide about 2.6× magnification. The 3-D–printed microscopy platform can manipulate sample slides in all three directions.
The researchers used sequencing techniques that amplify and fluorescently label copies of a target DNA sequence or transcript—in this case, mutant or wild-type KRAS—in isolated DNA, colon cancer cell lines, and human tumor samples. They then used the cell phone–based microscope to image the resulting sequencing products.
The significance: Mutation ...
