Foldscope
Foldscope Instruments Inc
Foldscope is an affordable paper microscope designed to be portable and durable, while performing on par with conventional research microscopes
Foldscope is an ultra-low cost microscope made from common materials such as paper. It is designed to be produced affordably, to be durable, and to give optical quality similar to conventional research brightfield microscopes and in the future darkfield, fluorescence, polarization and projection microscopes. Foldscope’s functions are currently being optimized for disease-specific diagnostics. Other benefits include usage in medical education and general education on the role of unseen lifeforms in infectious diseases.
The target region is worldwide as the manufacturer has a global focus and has already distributed to more than 135 countries
Foldscope was implemented by Foldscope instruments Inc, Centers for Global Health and the Gates Foundation and the following partners; Moore Foundation, India’s Dept of Biotechnology, Simons Foundation and MilliporeSigma . The company has a wide range of distributors in many parts of the world. The company also has a pool of donors as well.
The Foldscope costs about 50 cents to 1 USD to manufacture, with the goal to distribute disease-detection instruments for little to no cost. According to the designers, Foldscope kits are available in various forms: as individual kits or classroom kits, with different amounts of accessories included. All of this is reflected in the price, but large classroom kits (200 units) cost one dollar per student. The company operates on a 2-tier system: high price point kits for individual Foldscopes (Deluxe Individual Kits), and low price point kits for bulk Foldscopes (Classroom Kits). The price of an individual deluxe kit could be as low as 1.75 USD
Costly and bulky traditional microscopes and UC Berkeley Cellscope, which aims to offer mobile microscopy
Goal 3: Good health and well-being
As Foldscope is aimed at “democratizing science by developing scientific tools that can scale up to match problems in global health and science education, the creators of the Foldscope hope to create cheap and accessible solutions that everyone may interact with from researching adults in developing countries, all remote health workers to students in the city.”
