MicrobeScope: Innovating advanced, locally sustainable bioimaging technology for infectious disease research in disease-endemic settings in Africa

Initiatives aimed at overcoming barriers to the use of bioimaging in low- resource settings tend to focus on access to instruments, training, and networking opportunities. Despite significant investment, these interventions are still to yield sustained, impactful results.

Instead, the prevailing paradox is that many low-resource regions suffer the highest burdens of infectious and non-communicable diseases yet remain the areas in which the deployment of advanced research technologies – especially for local investigator-led discovery research – is scarce.

We propose that the need to reinforce a scientific culture of mechanistic investigation by matching adaptable analytical tools to prevalent public health priorities is an overlooked but essential ingredient in attempts to address this contradiction.

Using tuberculosis as model infectious disease, we will establish proof-of- concept validation of the potentiating effect of combining use of modular, open-access microscope technology with an immediate, relevant health challenge.

By harnessing the ability of optical microscopy to provide direct visual insight into a biomedical problem while stimulating hypotheses about disease aetiology and pathogenicity, we will demonstrate that tackling a pressing health challenge with an affordable, adaptable bioimaging tool can stimulate a scientific ecosystem in which both observational and mechanistic studies are supported towards advancing African investigator-led discovery science.