Confocal optics microscopy for biochemical and cellular high-throughput screening.

In recent years, both academia and pharmaceutical industry have produced significant advances in confocal detection and spectroscopy by laser-induced fluorescence. Confocal fluorescence studies provide information on identity, size, diffusion coefficient and concentration of the fluorescently labeled entity. This enables the establishment of sophisticated biochemical drug screening assays using the multitude of fluorescence parameters that can be observed (e.g. molecular brightness, fluorescence lifetime, anisotropy, resonance energy transfer). In cellular screening assays, confocality introduces spatial resolution in the vertical direction and reduces background fluorescence from outside the focal plane. Confocal HTS systems focusing on femtoliter-sized observation volumes allow for assay volumes far beyond current limits.