Automation of Challenging Spatial-Temporal Biomedical Observations With the Adaptive Scanning Optical Microscope (ASOM)

Abstract

Biological studies, drug discovery, and medical diagnostics benefit greatly from automated microscope platforms that can outperform even the most skilled human operators in certain tasks. However, the small field-of-view of a traditional microscope operating at high resolution poses a significant challenge in practice. The common approach of using a moving stage suffers from relatively low dynamic bandwidth and agitation to the specimen. This paper describes an automated microscope station based on the novel adaptive scanning optical microscope (ASOM), which combines a high-speed post-objective scanning mirror, a custom design scanner lens, and a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) deformable mirror to achieve a greatly expanded field-of-view. After describing the layout and operating principle of the ASOM imaging subsystem, we present a system architecture for an automated microscope system suitable for the ASOM's unique wide field and high-speed imaging capabilities. We then describe a low-cost experimental prototype of the ASOM that demonstrates all critical optical characteristics of the instrument, including the calibration of the MEMS deformable mirror. Finally, we present initial biological (living nematode worms) imaging results obtained with the experimental apparatus and discuss the impact of the ASOM on biomedical imaging activities.