Foldscope, a paper-based microscope

Magnifying Curiosity Worldwide

Imagine a world where every child has a microscope in their pocket.  What might change? Might more students move into the STEM fields? Would they discover something new in the microscosmos? Could they have a better understanding of their own world by knowing what is hidden but powerful?  Might a new notion of cleanliness emerge or a way of thinking about scale and life itself? 

The problem we are addressing is that in the world today over 1 Billion children live in homes where the family income is less than $2.5 a day. Access to education, let alone scientific instruments, is limited for these children.  And yet nearly all of these children have pencil and paper.  To that list of essentials we would like to add the microscope.

We have invented a very low-cost microscope made of paper and a tiny glass lens.  The cost to make our microscope is less than $1 and yet the power of this microscope rivals those of instruments found in chemistry classrooms across the developed world - 140x magnification with 2 um resolution.  In beta testing this device we have found the imagination of our beta testers far exceeded our own in the utility of this device.  It is not only extremely inexpensive (a primary goal of ours) but also extremely hardy in tough environments making it an amazingly useful tool to scientists and researchers in the field (and children on the playground!)

For teachers, especially of science, the tool allows equal access across the classroom – where once there was a line to get a moment on the microscope, now each child sitting at his/her desk or lab bench would have access to 140x magnification.  Lessons could be built around the use of the Foldscope not just at the classroom but in the field – field trips to local ponds to explore microscopic creatures in the environment is now possible with each child able to explore as they see fit with their very own device.  The microscopes are so low cost that each student could get and keep their device beyond the school year – buying new ones for each class of children will not be untenable!  And the children, by having them around the clock can do experiments at home or in their local community – testing water samples from local wells or other water sources.  Curricula could be created that allows the student to explore the natural world in their own homes.

We would like the world to take up this challenge with us - getting these devices into the hands of every child will take more than a village - it will take a planet.  We have already been working to convince governments, school districts, NGOs, states, cities and philanthropic citizens that the need exists and the solution is in our reach. Please help us along this journey. The results could be nothing less than life-changing for the student and history-making for the world. 

Our technology takes advantage of the earliest designs of van Leeuwenhoek, the microscope's inventor. His design used tiny spherical lenses for magnification.  

The single-lens concept allows us to shrink the dimensions of a microscope to nearly flat and thus create a device that only requires paper to hold all of its parts (sample stage, lens and x-y movement). 

Using a form of 'origami' we further simplified the device by manufacturing it from a single sheet of paper.

The use of low-cost magnets also allows the device to be coupled to a light source and a cellphone (although neither are required).

The fact that a single spherical lens is all that is required to do the work of magnification allows us to build a simple and yet still quite powerful device.  Technology on the lens-making side gives us perfect spheres of glass that are required to give the resolution that we need to see objects clearly and in focus at the desired magnification (140x).

Our device allows people to see red blood cells on an individual level - sufficient enough to find diseases like malaria.   

We have recently ramped up production of our device in China and continue to build partnerships with governments, schools and school districts, NGOs and Foundations and others who are interested in our mission to get our device to as many children as we can.  We are currently at 400,000 but would like to reach 1 M distributed in the next 12 months. We hope to build a second manufacturing facility in India where one of our large partnerships (with the Govt of India) has started and where demand has increased quickly.

Like India, we will create partnerships that can affect whole countries at a time.  We have initiated discussions with other governments in large countries and with foundations that can affect large scale projects.

Our goal within 3-5 years is to double our reach each year (starting with 1M in 2018, 2M in 2019, 4M in 2020 etc.) by these partnerships and by creating manufacturing facilities in significant regions of the world. 

At the same time, we continue to build our community of users - microcosmos participants will come from every region, every walk of life, every country and every age.

We produce the Foldscope in China and deploy throughout the world and to our US distributor.  Users order Foldscopes through our website and can contact us directly to place purchase orders.  We are working with governments on these larger orders to make very broad deployments, as in India.  We target governments, states, cities, districts, schools, teachers and consumers.  We have two product levels: the Deluxe kit is a Foldscope plus accessories in a metal case.  Our Basic Classroom Kit is 20 Foldscopes at $1.75 per Foldscope. We exhibit at trade shows and are developing government level contacts in So America.

In our first phase (Stanford) we distributed 50,000 Foldscopes to 130 countries.  These were distributed for free.

In phase 2 we are selling product. Our first 'customers' were Moore, Simons Foundation, MilliporeSigma and the Government of India who paid $250,000 for ~30,000 Foldscopes. We ran Kickstarter (raising $390,000) and now online sales.  In phase 2 we have sold ~350,000 Foldscopes.

To indicate impact - one story: in Lebanon there are refugee camps for Syrian refugees.  The children in those camps have little to no education opportunities.  We have partnered with the Kayany Foundation to distribute hundreds of Foldscopes there.

We hope to distribute 1M in 2018 and double in 2019, and continue doubling.  The population includes all demographics - geographic, economical, age, social class, etc.  We partner with organizations and governments to make sure everyone has access. 

We want science as accessible as writing.  We are developing low-cost tools and will distribute those through the same means, for instance, a centrifuge for under $2.  

We also hope to add diagnostics to our suite of applications.  Currently the Foldscope is being distributed as an educational device, but we hope to make it a part of a suite of diagnostic tools.

Manu Prakash is a MacArthur Genius-award winner and an Assistant Professor of Bioengineering at Stanford University.  He and his PhD student, James Cybulski, started the company when Jim graduated from Stanford.  Drs Prakash and Cybulski are both passionate about the mission of Foldscope to reach resource poor communities with scientific tools.  Dr Prakash continues his work in Frugal Science at Stanford developing new tools that can be produced for pennies. He is also familiar with the needs of the developing world, having grown up in India.

Other team members come with years of experience in administration, sales, and customer relations.

We produce two product lines: a Deluxe kit is affordable to the developed world and includes the basic Foldscope, accessories and a metal container.  

Our second line is the basic Foldscope.  We sell 20 Foldscopes for $35 or $1.75 per Foldscope making it accessible to many more people who would otherwise not have access to such instruments.

By selling the Deluxe kit to those who can afford it, the company can then sell the low-cost kit to the developing world.  

We are currently selling about $50k of product per month online and with small purchase orders; large orders (more than $250k) come about twice a year.  We hope to increase both of those by expanding our marketing, outreach and workshop locations in the coming years to reach $100k per month (online and PO) and large orders 3-5 times per year. At our current growth, we should achieve sustainability by 2020.

We have plans to expand our line to include a set of lens sizes to complement the one that is provided (140x) and add future PrakashLab projects (like paperfuge) to our product line. These will help retain repeat customers and further the capabilities of our offerings.

We believe Solve has access to a number of potentially valuable partners and can provide significant exposure for our product and mission. 

We hope to gain wisdom from the collaborations that are possible through this organization and take our company to the next level.

We are doing well selling a few Foldscopes at a time.  We have had some impact selling large numbers, but that is where we need to go.  We need to find partners who can fund the purchase and distribution of millions of Foldscopes and take that burden from us (we realize it will be impossible for us to sell and distribute 1B Foldscopes as a single company selling a few Foldscopes at a time).

We would also appreciate help with supply chain management and with global shipping strategies.