Cellphone-based microscopy

A new article in PLOS describes setting up a cameraphone with a magnifier in order to read slides, enabling those with cellphones but without microscopes to read say, malaria or sickle-cell slides. It can also be used with fluorescent stains and lighting for diseases like TB.



The slides - you can see some blood cells with gametocytes in A and B, and some sickle cells in C:


Seems pretty neat, if the system can be done cheaply, and the clinic has access to a 3.2 megapixel cameraphone.