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            Mozambique’s Universidade Eduardo Mondlane (UEM) and UCSD have won a five-year, $12.5-million award from the U.S. Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI). The purpose of this award is to help UEM build capacity in Medical training, research, and technology. Our sponsor for this project is Dr. Eliah Aronoff-Spencer, a member of UCSD’s Department of Infectious Diseases.  He is part of the partnership between UCSD and UEM to help build UEM’s medical infrastructure.  He has tasked us with creating a three in one brightfield and fluorescent microscope and spectroscope to support his work in Mozambique.             Microscopy plays a key role in medical applications.  Diseases are studied and diagnosed predominantly using bright-field microscopes and fluorescent microscopes. These microscopes can be very costly, with high quality fluorescent microscopes costing upwards of $20,000.  With such a high price for such a useful medical tool, it would be highly advantageous if these tools could be made less expensive using recent advances in optic technology in conjunction with smart mechanical design. Going beyond simply cutting the costs of these technologies, Dr Spencer would like our device to be easy to use and have many functions automated when possible.  This added functionality has the potential to save a lot of time for the lab techs and researchers who spend many hours hunched over microscopes.  The less time they have to spend at a microscope, the more time they will have to devote towards other vital jobs in the hospital.Design Features:

• Microscopy:

  • Ability to resolve images of staphylococcus and other bacteria (0.5 microns in size)