Combined Imaging and Chemical Sensing with a Disposable Microscope Objective Chemical Sensor

Abstract

This manuscript provides a concise review of the combined imaging and chemical sensing (CICS) technique performed with imaging fiber chemical sensors (IFCSs) and represents the first demonstration of CICS using a disposable microscope objective chemical sensor (dMOCS). The dMOCS assembly comprises two pieces that clamp around an imaging system's objective and a third adjoining piece that positions a sensing layer onto a sample's surface and within the objective's field of view. The prototype layer was oxygen‐sensitive and was fabricated using a luminescent ruthenium metal complex and a gas permeable polymeric membrane. O₂‐sensitive dMOCSs were characterized with respect to their imaging capabilities, sensitivity, and temporal response, and the feasibility of performing a high‐content screening assay was demonstrated with preliminary measurements of oxygen dynamics from living cells. While IFCSs are a requisite for analyzing remote samples that cannot be brought to a microscope stage, for those samples that can, CICS with a dMOCS possesses advantages with respect to spatial resolution, ease of fabrication, cost, and viewing area.

Keywords:

• Fluorescence microscopy
• high‐throughput imaging
• oxygen sensing

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Robert A. Welch Foundation for supporting this research (Grant AT‐1364), to Shook‐Fong Chin, Carole A. Mikoryak, and Rockford K. Draper for cultured cells, and to Richard J. Beavers and J. Doug Vass for designs and machining.