Microfluidics holds solutions to problems ranging from genome sequencing to point-of-care diagnostics. The Microfluidics Laboratory at Brandeis is studying a number of applications including protein crystallization and chemical oscillators. Under a MRSEC grant from the National Science Foundation, Brandeis is expanding user facilities. To that end, the Olin SCOPE team designed equipment for automated imaging of microfluidic chips. This project involved investigating current user requirements and problems, designing a system to meet them, and verifying the design by prototype. Key factors in this design were flexibility for future expansion as researchers' needs change, robustness for extended-duration experiments, and appropriate cost. This work is supported primarily by the MRSEC Program of the National Science Foundation.
