A method is disclosed for analyzing a thin tissue sample and adapted to be supported on a slide. The tissue sample may be placed on a slide and exposed to one or more different exogenous fluorophores excitable in a range of about 300 nm-200 nm, and having a useful emission band from about 350 nm-900 nm, and including one or more fluorescent dyes or fluorescently labeled molecular probes that accumulate in tissue or cellular components. The fluorophores may be excited with a first wavelength of UV light between about 200 nm-290 nm. An optical system collects emissions from the fluorophores at a second wavelength, different from the first wavelength, which are generated in response to the first wavelength of UV light, to produce an image for analysis.

Photoluminescence from a sample detector is detected using an array of photo-sensitive detectors. At least one first photo-sensitive detector of the array is provided with a first type of linear polarization filter and at least one second photo-sensitive detector is provided with a second type of linear polarization filter. The first type of linear polarization filter has a plane of polarization which is at angled with respect to a plane of polarization of said second type of polarization filter.

A method for determining antibody concentration in a liquid sample comprising the steps of incubating in a reaction chamber the liquid sample with an antibody-binding probe comprising a generic antibody binding protein conjugated to a long life fluorescent dye to provide a reaction mixture, assaying the reaction mixture in the reaction chamber for fluorescence polarisation to detect a change in polarisation between excitation and emission light, and correlating the change in polarisation with antibody concentration of the sample.

A non-invasive measurement of biological tissue reveals information about the function of that tissue. Polarized light is directed onto the tissue, stimulating the emission of fluorescence, due to one or more endogenous fluorophors in the tissue. Fluorescence anisotropy is then calculated. Such measurements of fluorescence anisotropy are then used to assess the functional status of the tissue, and to identify the existence and severity of disease states. Such assessment can be made by comparing a fluorescence anisotropy profile with a known profile of a control.

A fluorescence polarization measurement device includes a light source unit, a polarization direction modulation element, a detector, and a controller. The polarization direction modulation element spatially modulates a polarization direction of the excitation light by a predetermined frequency, and emits, on a measurement target solution, the excitation light for which the polarization direction is spatially modulated by the predetermined frequency. The detector detects a spatial distribution of fluorescence intensity of the fluorescence having a polarization direction in a predetermined direction from among fluorescence emitted from the measurement target solution due to the excitation light. The controller extracts, from the detected spatial distribution of fluorescence intensity, a direct current component and a component having a frequency identical to the predetermined frequency, and calculates, based on the extracted component and the direct current component, a degree of polarization of the measurement target solution.

There is provided a method of identifying one or more substances in a sample by: illuminating the sample with light of each of a plurality of different excitation modes; measuring an intensity and/or polarisation of light from the sample at a plurality of wavelengths to obtain a measured spectrum for each of the excitation modes; and identifying one or more substances in the sample using the measured spectra together, wherein: the excitation modes differ in one or both of wavelength and polarisation; and the identifying of the one or more substances uses contributions to the measured spectra from a plurality of photophysical processes in the sample including inelastic scattering of light. An apparatus suitable for carrying out the method is also provided.

The invention generally relates to methods for quantifying an amount of enzyme molecules. Systems and methods of the invention are provided for measuring an amount of target by forming a plurality of fluid partitions, a subset of which include the target, performing an enzyme-catalyzed reaction in the subset, and detecting the number of partitions in the subset. The amount of target can be determined based on the detected number.

The present disclosure relates to a method for analyzing tissue specimens. In one implementation the method involves obtaining a tissue sample and exposing the sample to one or more fluorophores as contrast agents to enhance contrast of subcellular compartments of the tissue sample. The tissue sample is illuminated by an ultraviolet (UV) light having a wavelength between about 200 nm to about 400 nm, with the wavelength being selected to result in penetration to only a specified depth below a surface of the tissue sample. Inter-image operations between images acquired under different imaging parameters allow for improvement of the image quality via removal of unwanted image components. A microscope may be used to image the tissue sample and provide the image to an image acquisition system that makes use of a camera. The image acquisition system may create a corresponding image that is transmitted to a display system for processing and display.

A super-resolution observation device includes an illumination optical system collecting a first illuminating light having a first optical frequency co, on a first region of an observation object, collecting a second illuminating light having a second optical frequency .sub.2 on a second region partially overlapping the first region, and collecting a third illuminating light having a third optical frequency .sub.2 on a third region containing a non-overlap region which is a region of the first region and does not overlap the second region; and an extraction unit extracting a signal light generated in accordance with a change in an energy level of a substance in the non-overlap region from a light generated in all of the first region, the second region, and the third region.

An aerosol generation system has a light source arrangement which provides signals at first and second wavelengths, and the detected light signals are recorded. The detected signals are processed to derive at least a measure of the aerosol particle size. This can be used in combination with the other parameters which are conventionally measured, namely the aerosol density and flow velocity. Thus, optical measurement (possibly in combination with an air flow measurement) can be used to estimate the aerosol output rate as well as the particle size.