515 Morrill Road Ames, IA, 50011 United StatesThe Confocal and Multiphoton Facility of the Office of Biotechnology provides confocal and multiphoton instrumentation and training for internal and external researchers. Confocal microscopes remove out-of-focus fluorescent light from the image, allowing clearer imaging of the sample, including the ability to view structures and components that were obscured by excess fluorescence that would be generated by standard fluorescence microscopes. Some applications of confocal microscopy include fluorescence microscopy when spatial distribution of cellular or other structures is important to the research being conducted, acquisition of a stack of images that can be used for 3D-reconstruction, viewing structures in thick tissue and removing background and cross-talk fluorescence or fluorescence from other structures that obscure viewing of the desired structure. The confocal microscope in the Confocal and Multiphoton Facility allows for real-time optical sectioning of fixed and living specimens, providing significant improvements in optical contrast and resolution over traditional light and fluorescence microscopy. The facility is equipped with a Leica SP5 X MP confocal/multiphoton microscope system with an inverted microscope front end. New technology available on this system includes a white light laser, IR laser and optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Researchers are no longer limited to three or four lasers at three or four fixed wavelengths but can tune the white light laser to any wavelength between 470 and 670 nm, which has a similar effect to having 200 lasers and 200 wavelengths. This allows researchers to select the excitation wavelength that is best suited to their samples and will result in maximum fluorescence emission. On the emission side, the system has an Acousto-Optical Beam Splitter (AOBS) which allows researchers to precisely set the emission wavelengths they would like to capture rather than be limited to preset emission ranges determined by fixed filter sets. Both of these technologies help to separate fluorescence signals with close excitation and/or emission spectra.

2610 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2036The Confocal and Multiphoton Facility of the Office of Biotechnology provides confocal and multiphoton instrumentation and training for internal and external researchers. Confocal microscopes remove out-of-focus fluorescent light from the image, allowing clearer imaging of the sample, including the ability to view structures and components that were obscured by excess fluorescence that would be generated by standard fluorescence microscopes. Some applications of confocal microscopy include fluorescence microscopy when spatial distribution of cellular or other structures is important to the research being conducted, acquisition of a stack of images that can be used for 3D-reconstruction, viewing structures in thick tissue and removing background and cross-talk fluorescence or fluorescence from other structures that obscure viewing of the desired structure. The confocal microscope in the Confocal and Multiphoton Facility allows for real-time optical sectioning of fixed and living specimens, providing significant improvements in optical contrast and resolution over traditional light and fluorescence microscopy. The facility is equipped with a Leica SP5 X MP confocal/multiphoton microscope system with an inverted microscope front end. New technology available on this system includes a white light laser, IR laser and optical parametric oscillator (OPO). Researchers are no longer limited to three or four lasers at three or four fixed wavelengths but can tune the white light laser to any wavelength between 470 and 670 nm, which has a similar effect to having 200 lasers and 200 wavelengths. This allows researchers to select the excitation wavelength that is best suited to their samples and will result in maximum fluorescence emission. On the emission side, the system has an Acousto-Optical Beam Splitter (AOBS) which allows researchers to precisely set the emission wavelengths they would like to capture rather than be limited to preset emission ranges determined by fixed filter sets. Both of these technologies help to separate fluorescence signals with close excitation and/or emission spectra.