The Miniscope uses wide-field fluorescence imaging to record neural activity in awake, freely moving mice. It has a mass of 3 grams and uses a single, flexible coaxial cable for power, control signals, and imaging data. You can buy for just under two grand as well as other parts on labmaker.org. You can read a […]
Author: LabOnTheCheap
Make Your Own Syringe Pumps
While we love the syringe pumps from SyringePump.com (really!), consider making your own syringe pumps instead with the Open Source Syringe Pump Library. If you want the with it, here’s a more professional looking arduino-based setup.
3D Print a Nutating Mixer
Build a nutating mixer for 1/10th of the cost of a commercial product. Even better, this one can be easily modified to accommodate custom sample sizes and mixing velocities.
Open Spin Microscopy
Awhile back we talked about OpenSPIM, which has a great step by step tutorial on how to make a light-sheet microscope. In the same vein there is Open Spin Microscopy, a website with several DIY light sheet microscopy projects including a much simpler optical tomography design. The website can be a little tricky to use, […]
Paperfuge: A Paper Centrifuge for QBC Capillary Tubes
Using some card stock paper, a braided fishing line, some PVC pipe (or wood), and drinking straws with acrylic a team at Stanford proposes a basically free alternative to QBC centrifuges with comparable performance. To paraphrase from the paper: “The hematocrit results obtained in 1.5 mins on the paperfuge are comparable to the results obtained […]