Confocal Microscopy Facility

 

Confocal Microscopy Facility

 

Confocal microscopy generates sharp images from fluorescently labelled samples. Out-of-focus light, which blurs the image in conventional microscopy, cannot pass the confocal pinhole and is therefore eliminated. From serial optical sections a 3-dimensional representation of a sample can be generated.

Confocal microscopy is performed on tissue sections, fixed cultured cells or even with living cells that contain an appropriate fluorescence label.

Laser light is used for efficient excitation of fluorescently labelled samples. The various lasers of a confocal microscope can also be used as a precision tool to modulate fluorescence in living cells with subcellular resolution.

Based on this property, advanced fluorescence techniques have emerged that can give access to the intracellular dynamics and interactions of fluorescently labelled biomolecules.