Team:WPI Worcester/Measurement

Measurement of Fluorescence through Non-Conventional Means

The WPI-2016 Igem team developed its unique method of measurement through technological constraints. The team lacked proper access to a flow cytometer at their university. However, measuring fluorescence was still required to analyze their experiments. The team devised a new way to measure fluorescence of a sample using microscopy and image analysis. By using the program ImageJ, the images taken of fluorescence microscopy were analyzed for brightness on a pixel basis. Through taking images of the same sample of cells at the same exposure times, data was collected and averaged to derive fluorescence data. This data was then checked through a collaboration with the Boston University Weblab, using their flow cytometer. When compared, the flow cytometry data from BU confirmed the legitimacy of the microscopy image analysis method. It is through this ingenuity that WPI more than qualifies for the measurement prize.