The Zeiss Laser Scanning Confocal microscope is located in R413 of the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School Research Tower in Piscataway, New Jersey. Technical assistance and sample preparation services are provided for casual users. A user fee schedule is available. In contrast to a conventional microscope, a confocal microscope only collects light coming from the focal plane of the lens.
Light coming from out of focus areas is suppressed.
Thus information can be collected from very defined optical sections perpendicular to the axis of the microscope. Subsequently the stack of images can be used to reconstruct a three-dimensional view of the specimen. Fixation of the tissue or cells is generally not necessary. Finally, the confocal microscope can be used to determine the surface structure, including that of mineral specimens or semi-conductors.