Modern Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy.

Since its commercialization in the late 1980's, confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) has since become one of the most prevalent fluorescence microscopy techniques for three-dimensional structural studies of biological cells and tissues. The flexibility of the approach has enabled its application in a diverse array of studies, from the fast imaging of dynamic processes in living cells, to meticulous morphological analyses of tissues, and co-localization of protein expression patterns. In this chapter, we introduce the principles of confocal microscopy and discuss how the approach has become a mainstay in the biological sciences.