Profile: Optiscan Pty Ltd. specializes in the development and application of microscopic imaging technologies for medical markets. The Optiscan FIVE 1 is a handheld fluorescence endomicroscope that has been specifically designed for in vivo investigation of animal tissue. Our confocal microscopes are laser scanning microscopes that provide high resolution, high magnification images of specimens. They can provide magnification of more than 1000 times, compared to conventional magnification in the order of 10 to 20 times. Confocal microscopes are bulky instruments, commonly used in research or laboratory settings. When used to examine biological specimens, the principle of confocality allows these powerful microscopes to obtain images from beneath the surface of the specimens they examine. A laser is projected onto a pinpoint target in a specimen, on or below the surface of the object to be magnified. The target area is scanned rapidly across a few cells at a time, and special optics are employed to ensure that only light returned from the pinpoint target at the specified depth is captured and measured. This signal is then displayed in real time as an image on a computer screen.