Pump-Probe Microscopic Imaging of Jurassic-Aged Eumelanin.

Melanins are biological pigments found throughout the animal kingdom that have many diverse functions. Pump-probe imaging can differentiate the two kinds of melanins found in human skin, eumelanin and pheomelanin, the distributions of which are relevant to the diagnosis of melanoma. The long-term stability of the melanin pump-probe signal is central to using this technology to analyze melanin distributions in archived tissue samples to improve diagnostic procedures.