Dr. Ryan M. Rich, Assistant Professor of Physics in the School of Natural and Social Sciences, recently presented his research at the Texas Section of the American Physical Society in Waco, TX.

"Confocal fluorescence microscopy has exploded in the last 20 years, and it is now considered an indispensible tool in biological research," says Dr. Rich. "However, there are serious limitations introduced by the background signal, and this is deterimental to imaging in tissue environments. My research manipulates the photophysics of the probe molecule, so that through repeated bursts of laser pulses separated by only 12.5 nanoseconds, we can pump a much larger number of the probe molecules into an excited state.  Thefore the probe produces a much stronger signal while the background is unaffected. This should open many doors in biological investigations that have thus far been welded shut."