Biological experimental raw data from: The Incubascope : A simple, compact and large field of view microscope for long-term

Optical imaging has rapidly evolved in the last decades. Sophisticated
microscopes allowing optical sectioning for 3D imaging or sub-diffraction
resolution are available. Due to price and maintenance issues, these
microscopes are often shared between users in facilities. Consequently,
long term access is often prohibited and does not allow to monitor slowly
evolving biological systems or to validate new models like organoids.
Preliminary coarse long-term data that do not require do acquisition of
terabytes of high-resolution images are important as a first step. By
contrast with expansive all-in-one commercialized stations standard
microscopes equipped with incubator stages offer a more cost-effective
solution despite imperfect long run atmosphere and temperature control.
Here, we present the Incubascope, a custom-made compact microscope that
fits into a table-top incubator. It is cheap and simple to implement
user-friendly and yet provides high imaging performances. The system has a
field of view of 5.5×8 mm2, a 3 µm resolution, a 10 frames/second
acquisition rate, and is controlled with a Python-based graphical
interface. We exemplify the capabilities of the Incubascope on biological
applications such as the hatching of Artemia salina eggs, the growth of
the slime mold Physarum polycephalum and of encapsulated spheroids of
mammalian cells.