A portable and low-cost incubator system enabling real-time cell imaging based on a smartphone

Incubators serve as essential tools for maintaining optimal temperature, humidity, and atmospheric gas composition for cell cultures. Their applications span across various fields like cell biology, microbiology, and molecular biology. However, in many cell-based studies, observing cellular changes often necessitates moving cells out of the incubator for microscope examination. Unfortunately, exposing cells to an environment that does not support healthy growth can undermine the reliability of test outcomes. In this article, we present a groundbreaking solution: a cost-effective, portable incubator system seamlessly integrated with a smartphone for real-time characterization tests. This innovation offers comparable imaging capabilities and maintains an environment similar to commercial microscope-incubator systems. Our system leverages a smartphone, enabling real-time cell tracking and data flow without the need for a complex and bulky computer-connected lens-camera arrangement. The inclusion of an incubator chamber within the smartphone ensures cells flourish in an optimal setting, while their growth remains unaffected by external factors. The compact design of the incubator system also ensures precise control and even distribution of the necessary cell culture media within the incubator. With these remarkable features, our system stands as a pioneering achievement-the first affordable and portable real-time cell tracking solution seamlessly integrated with a smartphone.