Microscopy & Microtechniques 85 AI-Powered Microscope to Fight Drug-Resistant Malaria Introduced


Advanced microscope designer and manufacturer Motic China Group Co, Ltd, a subsidiary of Motic (Xiamen) Electric Group Co Ltd, announced at MEDICA 2017 that it has partnered with the Global Good Fund, a collaboration between Intellectual Ventures and Bill Gates to develop technologies for humanitarian impact. This new partnership will create and distribute the EasyScan GO, a breakthrough AI-powered microscope to fi ght the spread of drug-resistant malaria and assist in case management. Using custom image recognition software, EasyScan GO is capable of identifying and counting malaria parasites in a blood smear in as little as 20 minutes.


“Malaria is one of the hardest diseases to identify on a microscope slide,” said David Bell, Director of Global Health Technologies supporting Global Good. “By putting machine learning-enabled microscopes in the hands of laboratory technicians, we can overcome two major barriers to combating the mutating parasite - improving diagnosis in case management and standardising detection across geographies and time.”


Accurate detection of severe and drug-resistant cases requires analysis of a blood smear by a WHO-certifi ed expert microscopist, which takes roughly 20 minutes per slide. Automating the process with an intelligent microscope can alleviate the shortfall of trained personnel in under-resourced countries.


Field tests of an early prototype of the microscope presented at the International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) showed that the machine learning algorithm developed by Global Good is as reliable as an expert microscopist.


“Our goal in integrating Global Good’s advanced software into Motic’s high-quality, affordable digital slide scanner is to simplify and standardise malaria detection,” said Richard Yeung, Vice President of Motic China. “Success with the most diffi cult-to-identify disease paves the way for the EasyScan product line to excel at almost any microscopy task and to detect other major diseases that affect developed and emerging markets alike.”


EasyScan GO is currently being trained to recognise all species of malaria and the team is exploring its application to other parasites and traits commonly found on a blood fi lm, including Chagas disease, microfi laria and sickle cell, as well as to other sample types, such as sputum, faeces and tissue. For more, please visit: www.easyscango.com.


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Report on the Work of Dr Henning Gieseler in the Field of Pharmaceutical Freeze Drying


Dr Henning Gieseler leads the Freeze Drying Focus Group (FDFG) in the Division of Pharmaceutics at the Friedrich-Alexander University (FAU) Erlangen-Nuremberg. He started his research in this area in 2006 after fi rst coming across freeze drying microscopy (FDM) during his post doc at the University of Connecticut in the USA where he used a Linkam FDSC196 stage. This led in the following years to a collaboration with Linkam on the development of innovative instrumentation dedicated to improve freeze drying characterisation methods.


The main research goal is to have a representative measure of the temperature point (or region) where the product starts to undergo structural (morphological) changes during primary drying of a freeze drying cycle. These changes can be visually detected, in form of ‘shrinkage’ or ‘collapse’. It is essentially the point where a (rigid) glassy system starts to fl ow (decrease in viscosity). This temperature point is specifi c for every single formulation in the world. Product defects or imperfections, such as collapse, are of regulatory concern and might impede pharmaceutical quality parameters. Conventional FDM allows the determination of the so called ‘onset of collapse temperature, Toc’. This measurement is performed using 2-3 µL of liquid placed between two glass cover slips. This experimental setup refl ects a 2D measurement, i.e. on the pore size level. In other words, during freeze drying, the product would not show the expected level of collapse when exposed to the same process temperatures applied during the FDM measurement. In order to get a more complete understanding of product behaviour, a scale-up of the measurement was required to cover the full perfomance range and test product behaviour at larger volumes when in a commercial vial. This would then be a 3D experiment which would be more refl ective of a typical freeze drying cycle. Together, these


complementary techniques allow a better understanding of formulation in the frozen state and of the scale up factors (from 2µL to 5 mL) which allow improved process optimisation.


The work over the last two years has led to the production of Linkam’s Freeze Drying Vial System (FDVS). This development came in part from the excellent work of one of Dr Gieseler’s PhD students, Zixin Huang. Dr Gieseler comments on the collaboration: “Our work with Linkam has enabled the release of a cost-effective solution with a small footprint for freeze drying optimisation. We have also seen that Linkam’s new Optical DSC performs a complementary role in the process.”


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Versatile AFM for Industrial Users Launched


Anton Paar has introduced the fi rst AFM specially designed for industrial users. Tosca™ 400, the premium atomic force microscope, employs a new form of automation on every level of operation to increase the effi ciency and simplify the handling of AFM measurements.


With Tosca™ 400 Anton Paar responds to the continuously growing demand of industry, confronted with new materials and research topics, for complex nano-surface analysis. Tosca™ 400 uniquely combines a premium technology with simple and user-friendly operation, which makes this AFM fi t for industrial users as well as scientists.


Automation is an integral element on every level of operation, increasing effi ciency and simplifying the handling of AFM measurements. Highlights such as fully automatic laser alignment, side-view cameras for the easiest possible sample engagement procedure as well as the workfl ow-oriented control and analysis software simplify AFM measurements signifi cantly.


With Tosca™ 400, users just need two clicks in the control software to start the laser alignment: After loading the cantilever onto the actuator body and the actuator body onto the AFM head, the instrument carries out the alignment automatically.


One of the most complex procedures when operating an AFM is the engagement procedure that brings the sample surface in contact with the cantilever. Tosca™ 400 takes care of that challenge: A side-view camera allows the user to track the exact position of the cantilever on the PC screen and move the cantilever close to the sample surface. Then the cantilever is lowered onto the surface automatically and is ready for scanning within seconds.


Probemaster is an innovative and unique tool for Tosca™ 400, designed by Anton Paar engineers to enable fast and easy cantilever exchange. Having this tool at hand, there is nothing more to do than place the cantilever anywhere in the marked area and easily slide it into the actuator body. Due to the extensive space for placing a cantilever into Probemaster it can easily be handled by inexperienced users – damage to often expensive probes are completely avoided and tweezers to position the tiny cantilever become obsolete. On top of that, Tosca™ 400 is compatible with any kind of cantilever, independent of brand and manufacturer.


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