We have named the new giant lens the ‘Mesolens’ to convey the meaning that it is intermediate between a macrophotography lens and the principal lens (objective) of a microscope, having the area coverage of the first and the resolution of the second. A company, Mesolens Ltd. has been formed to organise manufacture.
Contact: amos.brad@googlemail.com for details.
As a camera lens, it has the following applications:

1. Biomedical imaging of tens of thousands of cells in a single image with subcellular detail.
2. Fluorescence imaging of large areas of tissues or cell cultures with very low irradiation levels, because of the high brightness of the image.
3. Imaging of single cells by bioluminescence, as an alternative to fluorescence labelling. Time-lapse imaging of individual bioluminescent cells is possible with the new lens.
4. Improving the sensitivity of methods such as SPIM, where a selected plane inside the specimen is illuminated by projecting a thin sheet of light into it .
5. Increasing the rate of acquisition of large amounts of image data in high-throughput medical screening and perhaps in forensic and materials science.

As part of a confocal system or other 3D imaging system such as ‘multiphoton excitation’ the new lens will be capable of forming full three-dimensional images of large objects such as mammalian embryos with cellular detail. We are currently working on the development of suitable confocal optical apparatus for the lens.