The OpenFlexure Microscope project has been selected as one of the most promising solutions addressing MIT Solve’s 2024 Global Challenges being named as a Solver team in the Global Health Equity Challenge category.
The OpenFlexure Microscope is a design for a digital robotic microscope that can be manufactured in sub-Saharan Africa and is currently undergoing evaluation for malaria and cancer diagnosis. The microscope was selected by Solve’s expert judges from a pool of over 2,200 applicants from 130 countries.
The OpenFlexure Project was based at the University of Bath from 2017 to 2022. Since 2016 the project has been creating publicly available designs for laboratory grade microscopes that can be built anywhere in the world.
The novel microscope mechanism can be printed in plastic on a standard 3D printer. It delivers controlled motorised movements smaller than a red blood cell for accurate focusing and slide scanning.
Using an advanced algorithm similar to the panorama mode on a mobile phone, the microscope can create enormous high-resolution digital images.
The microscope has been designed in collaboration with teams across the world. As the plans are available for anyone to download online, the microscope has been replicated independently by individuals and organisations all over the world. The project doesn't track who is building them, so the ones which we know about are just a fraction of those that have been built.
Dr Richard Bowman, founder of the OpenFlexure project, previously led the project at the University of Bath and is now at the University of Glasgow.
He said: "We know that there are hundreds of microscope users on our forum, and many more who not on the forum. These users have told us they have built or used microscopes in over 50 countries, in all seven continents."
Dr Bowman was invited to New York City to pitch to an audience of over 200 philanthropists, global leaders, and investors during Solve Challenge Finals, which took place on Monday 23 September, at the beginning of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week.
The project was selected as Solver Team for the Global Health Equity Challenge for technology that makes good health and access to quality healthcare more equitable for all.
The OpenFlexure Project received $10,000 from MIT Solve to scale impact and reach more lives, and a share of the $100,000 Health Equity Innovation Award. Additionally, the OpenFlexure Project will begin a nine-month support programme through MIT Solve and receive access to additional funding opportunities, resources, experts, and mentorship.
The OpenFlexure team hopes that this support from MIT Solve will enable the project to move from evaluating their devices, to supporting the production of medically certified microscopes.
Dr Julian Stirling, a core OpenFlexure developer based in Bath, won the 2022 Peter Troughton Research Prize for the project whilst he worked as a Research Associate at the University of Bath.
He said: "Some may argue that the fastest way to certification would have been to keep the design secret and to manufacture microscopes in the UK, but that would have only added to an existing global problem.
“The majority of medical devices coming from Europe and North America lie idle in sub-Saharan Africa.
"For a microscope to be reliable, it needs to have been designed for the environment it is being used in. Spare parts and specialised maintenance engineers must also be available locally.
“Enabling companies around the world to manufacture and maintain microscopes for their local market is the only way to ensure that microscopes remain functioning."
The OpenFlexure Project is already working with manufacturers in Tanzania and Cameroon to help them build capacity to manufacture their own medical microscopes. Importantly, this manufacturing would be controlled and owned entirely by the local companies. Evaluation of the microscope for medical diagnosis is also ongoing in Tanzania, Rwanda, Brazil, and the Philippines. Baylor College of Medicine in Texas is also playing a critical role in the evaluation of the microscope's performance.
Dr Bowman said: "We have refined the design and evaluated it through several research projects at the Universities, so we are confident in its performance. We have excellent partners around the globe who have demonstrated that high quality microscopes can be produced in their countries, and that these microscopes have clinical applications.
“Our participation in MIT Solve will help take the next step, connecting us to a network of support to help our manufacturing partners deliver locally manufactured and maintained microscopes with approval for medical use."
Professor William Wadsworth, part of the OpenFlexure core development team and based in the Department of Physics at the University of Bath, said: “I am delighted that the OpenFlexure Project has been selected as a Solver Team in the 2024 Global Health Equity challenge.
“This will help us to continue to develop the OpenFlexure Microscope for local manufacture as a medical diagnostic device in low resource areas.
“Open-source hardware embeds the ownership of local manufacture in their communities, which is a key driver of global equity.”
The OpenFlexure project has been funded by a number of funding bodies including the UKRI-EPSRC Impact Acceleration Account and the Royal Society.