This Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project proposes to show the feasibility of an advanced concept electro-optical fluorescence microscope suitable for both routine analysis and research applications. Fluorescence microscopy has become an increasingly important research and diagnostic tool in the life sciences and material sciences. Applying video imaging to fluorescence microscopy has been difficult due to the low level of fluorescent emission and low contrast in the image. Current video fluorescence microscopes cannot show real-time 1280 x 1024, images at the diffraction limit of the optics. This instrument has many features that are unavailable in any single fluorescence microscope, including real-time, multi-color video images, instantaneous zoom with no change in focus or brightness, selective contrast enhancement, fluorescence lifetime excitation, simultaneous full-color transmission/reflection imaging, or simultaneous transmission/fluorescence imaging, and diffraction-limited resolution for all objective powers. The technology can be expanded to include steerable zoom and stereo imaging. The technology promises to have a cost at the low end of current fluorescence methods.
