[foodhackingbase] Let's enable yeast counting

[Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck]

Greetings to all!
thanks for a very nice topic. I'm definitely interested because I need 
it especially for yeast cell counting in my cidres before bottling but 
many other experiments as well. In my case I can keep eye on the 
progress of the project and if not too expensive in total, which seems 
to be the case, purchase stuff to fallow up. However before I put 
together fully functioning experimental incubator - temperature reading, 
heating and cooling, I have to be careful about time investments.

I'll have a look on the info in more detail during this week and once 
more thanks for a nice topic I definitely think we should do this and 
make it more popular on the events.

Sincerely,

Frantisek

---
Frantisek Algoldor Apfelbeck

biotechnologist, kvasir&hacker

http://www.frantisekapfelbeck.org

"There is no way to peace, peace is the way." Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi


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On 2018-01-28 21:39, Mark Meyer wrote:
> Hi all,
> I've found myself wanting to be able to work reliably with wild yeast
> cells for my beer. One way to enable this is to use a lot of patience
> and experience. The other would be to do a proper cell count and go
> with that. So far the hurdle has always been that a microscope sets
> you off by a lot of money.
> 
> See here for the procedure:
> http://www.nexcelom.com/Applications/cc-05-counting-yeast-cells-using-a-hemacytometer.php
> 
> Now however there's Foldscope: https://www.foldscope.com/
> 
> It's an origami microscope that's able to image single yeast cells
> (from what I've seen).
> 
> There's also this note:
> https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/hotmobile17-blood.pdf
> 
> That note presents essentially the same technique with a cheap mobile
> phone microscope, but it's for complete blood counts.
> 
> So here's what's needed (partly per person):
> 
>   - methylene blue (aquarium supplies, like 7 eur for 25g) for
> staining the cells, this eases identification of dead and alive cells
>   - counting chamber/hemacytometer (china, around 1 eur)
>   - micropipettes (sadly not cheap) for accurately measuring volumes
>   - foldscope (1 eur)
>   - some kind of fixture, be it paper or 3d printed, that mates the
> foldscope to the hemacytometer
>   - some general lab equipment for measuring
> 
> I've got everything on that list, with the exception of the foldscopes
> and the fixture. Those need to be ironed out as soon as Foldscope
> becomes available again. Currently they don't sell Foldscope classroom
> sets, because of production shortfalls, but I intend to buy some as
> soon as they become available again.
> 
> I already enlisted some locals as testing subjects and hope to be
> starting with this project in May. Hopefully I could present a
> workshop later in the year. The idea is to be able to set the cost at
> 10 eur and provide people with a Foldscope, some staining agent,
> counting chamber, plans for the fixture or fixture itself and maybe
> some general equipment to take home. Note the exclusion of the
> micropipettes.
> 
> Cheers, Mark