Opening New Frontiers for Multiphoton Microscopy with Advanced Laser Technology

Over the past three decades, multiphoton microscopy has become a workhorse for monitoring biological processes at sub-cellular resolution deep within live tissue and animals. Today, the fields most commonly relying on multiphoton microscopy are neuroscience and cancer research.

Despite numerous advantages, microscope and laser technology limits have hindered the application of multiphoton microscopy to many research questions, due to trade-offs in imaging speed, field of view, and imaging depth.

The past decade has seen the emergence of numerous novel multiphoton microscopy techniques[LK1.1] pushing beyond those initial boundaries. These include three-photon microscopy for deeper imaging, scanless two-photon imaging for high frame rates, and the combination of imaging and photostimulation for all-optical interrogation of neuronal circuits. Most of these advances have gone hand in hand with advances in laser technology, to allow for wider adaptation by application-oriented researchers.

In this presentation, we will explore examples of how recent advances in laser technology have helped overcome previous limits in multiphoton microscopy.

About the presenter
Christian Wilms is market development manager for biomicroscopy at Light Conversion, where he specializes in nonlinear microscopy, with a particular focus on two- and three-photon imaging in the biological sciences; email: christian.wilms@lightcon.com.