mimzy Posted October 13, 2014 I want to get some feedback on a business idea. I'm coming to the end of a PhD in basic sciences and due to a few recent life events I need to get some coin together. During my PhD I spent a lot of time doing microscopy work, mostly histology and bright-field, but also confocal, SEM and TEM. I was thinking of setting up a company where people can send me their samples; animal, plant, whatever (as long as it is soft enough to cut with a microtome) along with a list of what they want to see, and I would do all of the sample prep, microscopy and imaging and send them back pretty HD pictures. I know there is a market for this work in science and medicine, but I was also thinking about opening up the business to the public. Would anyone here be interested in a service like this? The biggest hindrance I can see with this project is sample preservation, although not really a problem with plant tissue. For animal and microbiological tissue I could provide a kit that would enable people to properly fix their tissue. Cost might be another problem, off the top of my head I don't think I could process and image a sample for less than $300. Let me know what you think. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ace1928 Posted October 13, 2014 Why could you not do it for less than $300? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mimzy Posted October 13, 2014 It depends on what you want to image what type of tissue it is. If we take the simplest case, which would be embedding in paraffin or resin and doing normal light microscopy with some rudimentary staining, then the costs would be prep and embedding materials (~$20/cm3), staining (~$5/cm3), sectioning, microscopy and imaging time (~4hrs/cm3, say $40/hr for my time). Without any mark-up you are looking at $185 per cm3 of tissue for the simplest possible case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
2XB Posted October 13, 2014 maybe would be more market to do interesting items your self and sell it as art.? 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mimzy Posted October 13, 2014 Yeah that's a good idea too. When you get down to the cellular level, it can be quite beautiful how elegant nature's solution to problems can be. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
IndianDreaming Posted October 14, 2014 Linnear Rundgren has a fantastic eye for the microscopic beauty of the world, look her up and have a chat, she's amazing: http://riaus.org.au/art-exhibitions/life-micro-cosmos Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
