Nicolas Pegard

By Nicolas Pégard, Chien-Hung Lu, Marton Toth, Monica Driscoll and Jason Fleischer

The advantages of microfluidics for fast analysis of microscopic suspensions have led to the commercial development of flow cytometers. In this chapter, we propose new microscopy methods that combine controlled motion of micro-organisms in a laminar microfluidic flow, optics, and computation. We propose three new imaging modalities. We first introduce a flow-based version of structured illumination microscopy, where the necessary phase shifts are no longer obtained by controlled displacement of the illumination pattern but by flowing the sample itself. Then, we propose a three-dimensional (3D) deconvolution microscopy method with a microfluidic device for continuous acquisition of gradually defocused images. Finally, we introduce a microfluidic device for phase-space image acquisition, and computational methods for the reconstruction of either phase of intensity, in 3D. The imaging modalities we introduce all retain the benefits of fluid systems for noninvasive bioimaging. The proposed devices can easily be integrated on existing microscopes as a modified microscope slide, or on flow cytometers, and aquatic imagers with minor adjustments. Alternative on-chip implementations are also possible, with lens-free devices, and near-field optical and microfluidic elements directly assembled on the surface of a CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) or CMOS (Complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor) chip.

Part of the book: Advances in Microfluidics