Lumenera Corporation, a leading manufacturer and developer of high performance digital cameras and custom imaging solutions, is pleased to announce their partnership with BioBus, a mobile microscope laboratory aimed at giving students the opportunity for hands-on scientific exploration.
BioBus was founded in 2007 by Cell Motion Laboratories as a way to inspire disadvantaged youth to pursue careers in science. The BioBus, a 1974 transit bus that is equipped with a $150,000 worth of research-grade microscopes, provides children access to modern science curricula and equipment under the guidance of real scientists as they visit schools and communities in New York City. The bus has visited over 420 schools and communities, facilitating scientific engagement even amongst populations historically underrepresented in science professions.
Almost every day of the school year, the BioBus parks in front of a school, giving students that board the chance to use a phase-contrast video microscope to make movies of crawling amoeba, the chance to use a scanning electron microscope to image a fly eye, and the opportunity to visualize glowing, streaming plant chloroplasts using a fluorescence microscope.
In partnership with BioBus, Lumenera has donated seven of their high-performance, research-grade microscopy cameras to be used on the bus. The cameras donated, including the INFINITYHD, the INFINITY2-1 R and the INFINITY3- 1URM, are ideally suited for life science applications, including fluorescence imaging, and produce accurate high resolution images. The cameras will equip the microscopes on the BioBus and allow students to capture their experiments and discoveries utilizing a superior imaging solution.
Ben Dubin-Thaler, Ph.D., founder of the BioBus, is thrilled with the major upgrade the new Lumenera cameras will have on his program’s impact. “The hands-on, visual nature of microscopy is key to the success of our programs. We have already seen the difference Lumenera’s cameras have on our students experience – students are more engaged, asking more questions, and wanting to spend even more time on the microscopes thanks to the video frame rate and high definition images these cameras produce. Lumenera is helping the BioBus inspire the next generation of scientists and innovators.”
“Lumenera is excited to support Cell Motion Labs’ BioBus with our INFINITY microscopy cameras. BioBus is an amazing initiative, helping to develop and foster a passion for science in the hearts and minds of youth of all ages,” says Huw Leahy, President of Lumenera. “ It is our hope that our INFINITY cameras will bring the experience to a new level, allowing participants to capture lasting images from their experiments, and further create a curiosity and love for science that follows them into their futures."
For more info on BioBus, please visit: http://biobus.org/about/