The Vanderbilt Medical Center CISR Facility houses two widefield microscopes for use in medical research studies by various faculty, staff, and students. Please remember, access to all CISR equipment is limited to registered users only. Please Click Here for more information on the registration process.

In a conventional widefield microscope, the entire specimen is bathed in light from a mercury or xenon source, and the image can be viewed directly by eye or projected onto an image capture device or photographic film. When fluorescent specimens are imaged using such a microscope, secondary fluorescence emitted by the specimen that appears away from the region of interest often interferes with the resolution of those features that are in focus. This situation is especially problematic for specimens having a thickness greater than about 2 micrometers.