Telepresence Confocal Microscopy

Abstract The advent of the Internet has allowed the development of remote access capabilities to a growing variety of microscopy systems. The Materials MicroCharacterization Collaboratory, for example, has developed an impressive facility that provides remote access to a number of highly sophisticated microscopy and microanalysis instruments. While certain types of microscopes, such as scanning electron microscopes, transmission electron microscopes, scanning probe microscopes, and others have already been established for telepresence microscopy, no one has yet reported on the development of similar capabilities for the confocal laser scanning microscope. At California State University-Stanislaus, home of the CSUPERB (California State University Program for Education and Research in Biotechnology) Confocal Microscope Core Facility, we have established a remote access confocal laser scanning microscope facility that allows users with virtually any type of computer platform to connect to our system. Our Leica TCS NT confocal system, with an interchangeable upright (DMRXE) and inverted microscope (DMIRBE) set up,