DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF A FUNCTIONAL MODEL OF A PORTABLE CYTOMETER: A PROTOTYPE FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES

Abstract

Flow cytometry (FC) represents an essential technique in modern laboratories as is able to characterize cell or particle populations in sample mixes. Flow cytometers, the analytic instrument, are nowadays very influenced by the market, presenting extreme prices with heavy, bulky and closed system designs that impede the visualization of the internal components and transportation. This undermines the dissemination of the analytical principles in dynamical educational settings. In this context, this bachelor thesis presents Iponuba, a low-cost prototype based on open-source resources to show that systems this complex can be simplified and implemented in reduced budgets. This is achieved by the successful implementation of a fully portable, 4 kilogram hardware module. Thanks to the Arduino micro controller, it is able to create for real-time sample study cycles and flows, data acquisition along with full instrumental control. Moreover, the addition of a Graphical User Interface (GUI) developed in Python allows real-time data visualization through histograms and dot plots, interactive gating capabilities, and direct exportation to the standard file format. The results demonstrate a functional, accessible instrumentation platform in a first approach towards achieving low-cost but high fidelity educational cytometers.