New type of microscope winner of Proto Lab innovation contest

When Eugene Cho sold microscopes for Nikon Instruments for a dozen years, he would always ask potential customers whether they needed an upright or an inverted microscope.

The uprights have the lenses on top and are typically used for looking down at glass slides.

Inverted lenses, which look up from below, are needed to examine cells or tissue in aqueous ­solutions, often at the bottom of petri dishes.

Many professional science labs need both ­systems, he said.

Cho wondered whether he could design and build a hybrid product that's two microscopes in one, so customers wouldn't need to purchase separate products, saving them both money and valuable lab space.

"We wanted to bring the microscope into the modern world," he said.

Cho went to work and founded Echo ­Laboratories in October 2013.

The San Diego-based firm won a Cool Idea! Award this year from Proto Labs in Maple Plain, which offers roughly six to eight awards for ­innovative projects each year.

Proto Labs makes custom prototypes and low-volume production parts, and the award provides some of its services to companies to help them bring new products closer to market.

Sarah Ekenberg, Proto Labs public relations manager, said the company gives away a total of about $250,000 in services each year through the awards. Some of the 26 recipients since 2011 have included firms that made a purse that can charge a smartphone, a tracking system to record images of surfers or other athletes, and a screwdriver meant for tight spots that can be configured into 380 different positions.

"We are working more with people in the idea stage where they typically haven't made the ­product yet, so we help them with their first generation," Ekenberg said.

For Echo Labs, the grant provided machined aluminum parts for the microscope's prototyping phase and low-volume production runs to fulfill early preorders for the product, she said.

"This versatile microscope is a game-changer for scientists," Proto Labs founder Larry Lukis said. "It truly re-imagines and reinvents the look, the feel and the function of traditional ­microscopes."

In addition to the hybrid features, Cho and his designers incorporated an iPad into the design to replace traditional eyepieces.

"Everyone remembers using microscopes when we were students and just really struggling and squinting through eyepieces to see that moment of discovery," Cho said.

Having an iPad offers a display that's much easier to use and high-quality images that can be shared with colleagues and classmates, he said.

The new microscope, called Revolve, also captures visual images internally and can store and transfer them using Echo's proprietary software. Cho said most current microscopes, by contrast, require external cameras, computers, programming and specialized training to collect images and transfer the data.

"We've incorporated the different technologies really to serve the needs of today's modern-day users," Cho said. "The other systems are just outdated."

Cho said the hybrid microscopes range from $10,000 to $15,000 for entry-level models, to $30,000 to $45,000 for more advanced systems. The main market for them is large research institutions and universities, biotechnology firms and pharmaceutical companies.

"Microscopes are exceeding $900 million this year in U.S. sales, and it's a $2.1 billion global market," he said.

Echo Labs recently launched its website, sold out its first production run of microscopes and will be installing them in November. Its main competitors include Nikon Instruments, ­Olympus, Zeiss, Leica and Life Technologies, all of which produce high-quality products at ­competitive prices.

But the industry's research-grade microscopes haven't changed much in the past 20 years, Cho said, so there's room for a newcomer.

"There's a huge opportunity for someone to come in and disrupt things," he said.

Tom Meersman • 612-673-7388