Instrumentation
To manipulate light- and temperature-sensitive proteins, we develop devices that allow us to programmatically control light and/or temperature in each well of microwell plates. These devices allow rapid exploration of a vast dynamic perturbation space and thus allow complex and systematic experiments that are rigorous yet easy to perform.
We design our devices to be maximally programmable and robust, but also to be fully open-source and practical to build and use for non-specialists. We openly share the design files and protocols, which has allowed widespread adoption of the optoPlate by the optogenetics community. These documents will also be made available for the thermoPlate and optoPlateReader upon publication.
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optoPlate
The optoPlates are a series of devices that allow illumination of individual wells of microwell plates and have been widely adopted for optogenetics experiments. The optoPlate allow full user-defined control over the intensity and temporal pattern of up to three colors per well of a 96-well plate. The optoPlate is compatible with both live-cell microscopy as well as with long-term experiments in an incubator. See our dedicated optoPlate page for more details, design files, protocols, and add-ons from the user community.
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thermoPlate
The thermoPlate is a thermal analog of the optoPlate. The thermoPlate allows user-defined control of sample temperature in each well of a 96-well plate. Each well has a dedicated heater and reader element. These two elements, in communication with an on-board Arduino, allow feed-back controlled temperature regulation for precise, dynamic programming of temperature for even days-long experiments. The design, construction, and implementation of the thermoPlate will be described in a series of upcoming manuscripts.
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optoPlateReader
The optoPlateReader (oPR) is a device that allows simultaneous optogenetic stimulation and spectroscopy (absorbance and fluorescence) in 96-well microplates. The oPR couples an optoPlate on top of a sample plate with the optoReader, an array of 96 photodiodes and optical filters. This integrated device allows 96 parallel feedback-controlled experiments, such that the optical properties of the sample (its fluorescence or OD) can trigger changes in the optogenetic stimulation parameters. A manuscript describing the oPR is posted on bioRxiv and is currently in peer review.