Today at the 2013 American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting, Bruker introduced the Opterra Multipoint Scanning Confocal Microscope, which sets a new standard for integration of confocal imaging with photoactivation. The new Opterra microscope utilizes a number of features to obtain the speed of wide-field imaging and the resolution of traditional confocal systems while minimizing phototoxicity, making it an ideal solution for gentle and fast confocal imaging of live cell preparations. A seven-position pinhole/slit aperture allows the Opterra to be optimized for varying objective lens magnifications that results in the ability to image deeper into tissue versus conventional disk scanning confocal microscopes.

“The Opterra has proven to be a major advance in terms of rapid, time-based volumetric imaging,” said Dr. Mario De Bono, Medical Research Council Group Leader at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge University, UK. “The speed of the system, coupled with its sensitivity and resolution has significantly enhanced our ability to visualize neural activity in 3D in C. elegans at speeds that were previously not possible. The ability to change pinhole size is great, as it allows us to match the imaging setup with the specimen.”