Confocal microscopy is a technique that allows researchers to obtain a highly resolved, high-contrast image of a focal plane in a fluorescent specimen by excluding or rejecting light emanating from out-of-focus planes. However, the basic design of confocals results in limitations for many biologists. It is often difficult to avoid photobleaching of specimens, to visualize fine or faintly-labeled structures, or to acquire high-quality images using short exposure times. The photomultiplier tubes used as the amplification detectors in these systems are restricted to a dynamic range of 8 bits (255 intensity levels), produce noise, and are not quantitatively linear detectors.

Members of the Biomedical Imaging Group at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, MA have spent the last fifteen years developing and perfecting a digital imaging system that helps scientists overcome these problems. Scanalytics is the exclusive worldwide licensee of this patented technology which allows researchers to obtain high-resolution, quantitatively accurate three-dimensional images of fluorescent specimens