Confocal microscopy at the integrated microscopy resource for biomedical research (IMR) of the university of wisconsin
Confocal microscopy holds great promise for improved imaging of fluorescent or reflective biomedical specimens. The IMR is actively investigating the advantages and optimal usage of the Medical Research Council's Lasersharp laser - scanning confocal microscope and Tracor/Northern's Tandem Scanning Microscope, which benefits from the principles outlined by Petran et al. and Boyde.Quantitative evaluation of microscopic images has always been complicated by the effect of out-of-focus structures on the final image. These effects can be greatly reduced if the conventional light microscope is replaced by a scanning-confocal light microscope. In such an instrument two conditions are met: 1) only a single point of the sample is illuminated at any time and 2) this point on the sample is then imaged onto the pinhole at the entrance to the photodetector. Because little light from out-of-focus planes will pass through the pinhole, only in-focus data is recorded.