Scanning microscope with very large field of view

Researchers in Prof. Mark Schnitzer's laboratory have developed a two-photon scanning microscope for imaging neural activity in a 2x2mm field of view while maintaining a fast scanning rate (~10Hz image update frequency). In its current form, the microscope employs 16 laser beams, interleaved in time to provide 16-fold improvement in the number of cortical neurons that can be imaged simultaneously. The scalable design could potentially increase the field of view to record 10,000 cortical neurons. Furthermore, the geometry of the microscope enables scanning on a curved surface, which can be used to restrict the area of interest to specific cortical layer of the brain. This technology was created for in vivo brain imaging of live animals and its use could be extended to optical stimulation and more general bioscience imaging.

Related Microscope Technologies from the Schnitzer Lab
“Ultrafast Multifocal Multiphoton Microscope” (Stanford Docket S13-139)
“Robotic microscopy system for simultaneously imaging multiple areas of a sample” (Stanford Docket S13-155)