The microscope setup is based on an inverted microscope design. An automated stage is used to record larger areas by mosaicing a series of single adjacent frames. The LED light is focused using a ball lens with a short focal length onto the sample surface in an oblique-angle cis-illumination scheme since standard microscopy optics do not transmit UV light efficiently. No dichroic mirror or filter is required as microscope objectives are opaque to UV excitation light. The emitted fluorescence light is collected using a long-working-distance objective and focused via a tube lens onto a CCD camera.
Specimens are submerged in exogenous dye for 10 seconds and then briefly washed in water or phosphate-buffered saline (PBS). The resulting stained specimens generate bright enough signals for direct and interpretable visualization through microscope eyepiece.