AcCELLoMatrix with Team Freiburg

At the iGEM meetup in Munich in May , members of both of our teams realized that our projects share a common objective: Analyzing 2-dimensional, visual signals. For the following months, we stayed in contact and developed a concept to encode information in 384-well plates in the form of data matrix codes.

At the beginning of September, Michael spontaneously took a train to Freiburg and we met face-to-face for several hours to exchange details on our cooperation and general iGEM experiences.

Spontaneous group photo Freíburg iGEMers and Michael (right) meeting to discuss our cooperation

Data Matrix Masks for illumination

We decided to use masks to locally induce the cells in 384-well plates in a data matrix pattern. To enable us to quickly design masks for different data to be encoded, we wrote a software to easily generate SVG-files for a laser cutter.

Making a datamatrix mask Upon entering a string, the software predicts if the datamatrix will fit into a 384-well plate.

After a string has been entered in the designer, an SVG-file can be saved and used for laser cutting the mask:

Cut Lines This AcCELLoMatrix mask can be lasercut and placed below a 384-well plate.

Get the DatamatrixMaskDesigner to make you own AcCELLoMatrixes! (requires Windows 7/8)

You can also download the full source code and compile or modify it with Visual Studio (Express) 2013.

For the first experiments, we cut two different data matrix patterns from polypropylen foil. The masks can be used to cover the plates from the top or from the bottom.

AcCELLoMatrix masks These masks can be placed on top or beneath 384-well plates to facilitate localized illumination of wells.

AcCELLoMatrix Reader App

After mask have been designed and the information was encoded into the well plate by selectively illuminating the cells, how do you get it out again? We made an app for that: the AcCELLoMatrix Reader for Windows Phone.

We designed the app to be easy to use: A user can simply open the app

Step 1: Start the app

...read through very brief instructions...

Step 2: Start scanning

...and start scanning for datamatrixes!

In the small picture you can see how the frames are pre-processed to be recognized by the ZXing datamatrix recognition algorithm. As soon as the algorithm finds a datamatrix, the string value is decoded and displayed to the user:

Outlook

References

[http://www.nuget.org/packages/ZXing.Net/ ZXing.NET] by Michael Jahn is a port of ZXing ("zebra crossing"), both licensed under [http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 Apache 2.0]