Citizen Science/Open Fluorometer Project/Resources

=Resources= Vincent 10:05, 6 June 2009 (EDT): to be updated over the summer 2009 Feel free to add more relevant resources.

Glossary

 * Fluorescence-related:
 * Fluorescence
 * Fluorophore
 * Emission spectra
 * Excitation spectra
 * Optics-related:
 * LED
 * Lense
 * Light source collimation
 * Excitation filter
 * Emission filter
 * Dichroic mirror
 * Photodiode
 * Electronic-reated
 * Lock-in system
 * Amplifier

Fluorescence measurements and standards

 * Great tutorial for beginners
 * Tutorial on Fluorescence and Fluorescent Instrumentation (PDF from Univ Washington)
 * Standardization of Fluorescence Measurements: Criteria for the Choice of Suitable Standards and Approaches to Fit-for-Purpose Calibration Tools
 * Standardization and Quality Assurance in Fluorescence Measurements: Techniques (Book)

Reviews

 * 1) 1 pmid=17154328
 * 2) 2 pmid=19072930

Interesting published designs

 * 1) 1 pmid=19269486
 * 2) 2 pmid=17180202
 * 3) 3 pmid=17416310
 * 4) 4 pmid=19151944
 * "An Inexpensive LED-Based Fluorometer Used to Study a Hairpin-Based DNA Nanomachine", Hanwen Yan, 2005.

Selected designs (in details)

 * Novak's design (2007)
 * Shrinivasan's design (2006)
 * Yang's design (2009)

Optics

 * Equipment: lenses, dichroic mirrors, optical filters
 * Thorlabs (great quality, but expensive)
 * Comar (Cambridge, UK)
 * check on ebay

Electronics

 * Equipment: LEDs, microcontroller
 * Lock-in system based on a 555 Timer IC for example

Commercial products

 * Qubit from Invitrogen
 * TBS-380 Mini-Fluorometer from Turner BioSystems
 * SpectroFluorometer from Stellar Net Inc.
 * Nanodrop Fluorometer