How Advancements in CMOS Technology Stimulate Discovery

Antony van Leeuwenhoek, a 15th century fabric merchant and haberdasher from Delft, with an insatiable curiosity and an unusual skill at crafting lenses, is renowned as one of the founders of microscopy and microbiology. His simple optical designs provided clearer and brighter views with greater detail. Five hundred years later, the desire for greater clarity, intensity, and resolution still drives the science of advanced imaging. In the last decade, one of the biggest imaging innovations has been the transition from CCD to scientific CMOS (sCMOS). Using sCMOS cameras that can deliver simultaneous speed, sensitivity, and resolution, and most recently, quantitative CMOS (qCMOS) cameras that have single photon resolving capabilities, researchers are capturing massive amounts of imaging information from living cells and organisms.

As with van Leeuwenhoek microscopes, sCMOS technology is remarkable because of the hidden worlds now revealed. In this talk, Fullerton discusses how specific engineering improvements in CMOS cameras, such as low read noise and high quantum efficiency translate directly into insights in cellular, neuro, and developmental biology and are even driving advances in quantum computing.

About the presenter
Stephanie Fullerton, Ph.D., has over 21 years of experience in the life science imaging industry working in fields from technical sales to marketing strategy and product development.

Within Hamamatsu, her career has centered on camera technology, and she has contributed first-hand to the transition from CCDs to scientific CMOS. Alongside colleagues at Hamamatsu, Fullerton has participated in the implementation of advanced imaging for PCR, DNA sequencing, whole slide scanning, lightsheet, flow cytometry, and super resolution. Her strong life science and research background provides context to the distinguished photonics and engineering mindset within Hamamatsu. Fullerton graduated from the University of Rochester with her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemistry and holds a doctorate from Duke University in Neurobiology.