
Cracking the puzzle of automated low-cost malaria diagnosis - Dowwie
https://twitter.com/PrakashLab/status/1144453714637230083
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jackfoxy
I just did a quick visual scan of the PDF. Some parts have to be fabricated.
_Custom parts of the microscope were designed with Autodesk Inventor
Professional and 451 fabricated by Protolabs and 3D Hubs..._ I do not think
this is open source. At least I do not find a link to the file.

 _The measurement results were 465 saved as CSV files and processed with
MATLAB_ There are open source MATLAB alternatives.

Great project. With effort it could be reverse engineered, but links to all
the required files would make it far easier.

~~~
jackfoxy
Seems the title of this post has changed since I first commented (it had
referenced open source). Still, it would be nice to see all the design an
operational files involved.

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d-sc
I’ve worked on $100k devices that are used for research. I believe there’s a
good future for this type of work. Most of what makes those devices expensive
is the R&D that goes into them, not the production costs.

~~~
cdcox
That is somewhat true but there are some fixed costs that cannot be easily
brought down.

1\. Optics- especially when you start talking 63x (looking at internal cell
structures) color corrected objectives are generally going to run around 10k,
there is really no way around that. A microscope like the one shown here (and
the GRIN lens miniscopes used in brains recently and the ball lens
microscopes) don't require as good optics as they aren't imaging at super high
resolution and color misalignment won't hurt them.

2\. The camera chip/housing/frame grabber- Generally the actual chip is pretty
low cost. But the system to cool and grab a lot of frames really fast is
pretty expensive. The rates of commercial cameras-120 FPS at their highest, is
completely insufficient for a research machine. Also the sensitivity of an
'off the shelf' camera is not going to be appropriate for a research machine.
These costs hold these cameras around 5-10k. This project doesn't require
these systems because they are looking at whole cells so they can afford to
'lose' a lot of photons.

3\. Lasers- if a microscope has a laser (generally only 2 photons or certain
types of confocals), it's going to cost a lot. I don't know what costs go into
making a laser but the technology is pretty well established and the power of
laser required for these machines seems to consistently run into the 20-50k
range.

Other parts that are can be made cheap, but cost more (1-2k) when they need to
be long lasting and highly precise. Stages (xyz stepper motors in particular),
dichroic mirrors/filters, housing body, LED/fluorescent lighting source. This
project got around that by specializing these components and using off the
shelf stuff. I think probably many of these components could have their prices
dropped a lot.

I think there is a future in bringing some of the costs down, but until we get
a cheaper way to grab a lot of frames quickly or make good optics on the
cheap, I don't know if research scopes (except the ones currently under patent
like STORM) will drop much. Though alternative scopes (like the miniscope- 1k)
can sometimes surprise people and replace expensive microscopes (120k two-
photon), but that's more about being able to build into the niche and cutting
out the need for more expensive components. Though from what I've read/seen
microscope companies have a ton of overhead.

~~~
Firerouge
Can you elaborate on why optics are so expensive and why it isn't likely that
manufacturing methods will come down in cost any time soon?

~~~
dekhn
Only very high-end optics are expensive if your goal is to just get reasonable
objectives you don't have to spend a lot of money it gets more complicated
when you're doing things like laser illumination or if you need a really
really low n.a.

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ISL
$250 in parts is not a $250 microscope.

The expertise required to design, source, align, calibrate, stock, distribute,
sell, and support such a microscope is not without cost.

~~~
m463
But usually nobody quibbles about the same sort of definition for say a $250
3d printer (which requires all that fiddling too)

~~~
johnday
The difference being that professionals don't generally buy $250 3d printers -
and when they do, i expect they do factor those costs in.

The difference is that professionals get paid and they know the value of their
time. If you cannot rely on free labour, factoring in associated costs is
important.

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imglorp
It seems like there are a mountain of health related challenges that would
benefit from some application of a little tech. I came here to ask what were
some other hacking opportunities, how to find them, and how to collaborate
with the med/bio people that need it.

Billg funded this project, and of course he's got something to say:
[https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/William-Wu-changed-
hi...](https://www.gatesnotes.com/Development/William-Wu-changed-his-career-
to-help-the-poor)

~~~
la_barba
You can find those challenges yourself by volunteering your time at the grass
roots level. One of the top of my head - One of the challenges in mass
immunization (especially in poorer countries) is that the 'last mile' data is
very sketchy and mostly self-reported. Many times people just have to assume
that immunization campaigns are successful without proof. It would be nice to
create a device/method/protocol that could automatically collect data, like
say who was immunized, what were they given, number of doses, etc, etc.
Conceptually the challenge looks to be easy, but in practice at the ground
level is where the real challenges lie.

Another idea is creating a smartphone app that end-users can upload test
results via the camera. for e.g. in the case of tuberculosis, once you
administer the test, you have to observe a color change on your skin within a
certain period of time. The key thing here is that in places where the number
of doctors are few, we want to create a system where the patient who is taking
the TB test only goes to the doctor if they actually have TB. A smartphone app
that can deal with various lighting conditions, various resolutions, various
color casts (due to auto white balance issues), etc, etc would be an
interesting option.

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Dowwie
The paper supporting this work:
[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684423v1](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684423v1)

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manup44
It scans blood thin smears for malaria; but scans sputum samples for Tb.

Cheers Manu Prakash

~~~
fudged71
Can you compare this approach to the origami and spinning projects for malaria
detection? Are they complementary?

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angel_j
I was thinking about an all-in-one device like this, naively wondering if it
would work to throw many phases and frequencies of light at the sample, and
train AI on that.

Though this microscope has specific modules for tb or malaria, I wonder how
well those filters would find other things with some ML.

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umvi
If only this were out before the fall of Theranos, they could have stuck it in
a fancy box with a robot and called it "Einstein".

~~~
nurettin
I can easily say that this happened despite theranos.

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heisenbit
Sounds like a promising approach. Maybe they should ask Gates for some
funding.

~~~
Estyn
They are funded through the gates foundation

[https://twitter.com/PrakashLab/status/1144453793485955081](https://twitter.com/PrakashLab/status/1144453793485955081)

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WhyKill
Wrong. It's a $250 microscope. Any other cost is culturally imposed. Values
are not objects.

~~~
jandrese
Time isn't free.

~~~
jdironman
It is given to us freely everyday without asking. What we do with it
determines its value.

~~~
jessaustin
If you create powerful microscopes with that time, what value would be
determined?

~~~
jdironman
I think everyone has 3 numbers. A number that they will not go below, a number
that two parties can agree on for a transaction, and a number which they would
be extremely happy with (with no upper limit obviously). No different than
negotiating a salary / contract which is what it is. I think when someone
designs something with the intent to sell it however, that cost of research
and development gets baked into the expected returns on the volume of sales.
Its like an artist who sells originals versus an artist who sells copies of
artwork, if that makes sense.

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Simon_says
I have Twitter blocked. Is there another source?

~~~
jandrese
From the twitter post:

[https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684423v1](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/684423v1)

~~~
Simon_says
ty

