Patent ID: 8388134

Claim:
A system for performing fluorescent ligand scanning on a subject's eye, the system comprising: a light source configured to transmit light toward the subject's eye; a first microscope objective configured and disposed to focus light sent from the source toward the subject's eye to produce a focused spot of light to impinge the eye; an actuator coupled to a movable lens and configured to position the focused spot of light sent from the first microscope objective through the movable lens within the subject's eye; a lens configured to focus light, having been sent from the source through the movable lens and having been emitted from the subject's eye; a detector configured and disposed to receive a first portion of the received light from the lens and configured to provide indicia of an image corresponding to the first portion of the received light from the lens; a processor coupled to the detector and configured to analyze intensities of light in the image to determine a location of a reference point corresponding to an interface of a portion of the eye; a second lens configured to focus light, having been sent from the source through the movable lens and having been emitted from the subject's eye; and a second detector configured and disposed to receive a first portion of the received light from the second lens and configured to provide indicia of an image corresponding to the first portion of the received light from the second lens; wherein the light emitted from the subject's eye and focused by the second lens, travels along a path that is 45 degrees to the line of sight of the subject and 90 degrees with respect to the path of light from the source; wherein the processor is configured to perform fluorescent ligand scanning by analyzing intensity of light emitted from a portion of the subject's eye, a location of the portion of the subject's eye being selected relative to the reference point, the analyzing of the intensity of light emitted from the portion of the subject's eye being to determine a physical property of material at the selected location based on fluorescence.