Recording dynamics of cellular processes

A method for high-speed imaging of cellular or biochemical changes of a population of cells of a biological sample, comprising:

• providing a pulsed laser beam with a spectrum of different wavelengths;
• receiving the pulsed laser beam at a spherical lens;
• shaping an area of light from the pulsed laser beam on a dispersive element using the spherical lens;
• manipulating the spherical lens to generate a trajectory for the area of light on the dispersive element, the trajectory corresponding to a multiphoton excitation area;
• dispersing the spectrum of the pulsed laser beam using the dispersive element;
• generating, using a first element, the multiphoton excitation area based on the dispersed spectrum of the pulsed laser beam;
• applying, by the first element, the multiphoton excitation area to a biological sample;
• and
• capturing, using an imaging detector array, information about the cellular or biochemical changes of a population of cells of the biological sample included in the multiphoton excitation area,
• wherein the information about the cellular or biochemical changes are captured in parallel at a resolution of a single cell.

A device comprising:

• one or more receiving elements configured to receive a pulsed laser beam that includes a spectrum of different wavelengths from a laser;
• one or more manipulating elements configured to manipulate spatial or angular displacement of the pulsed laser beam;
• one or more first elements configured to modify a shape of the pulsed laser beam;
• one or more dispersive elements configured to disperse the spectrum of the pulsed laser beam;
• and
• one or more second elements configured to generate a multiphoton excitation area based on the dispersed spectrum of the pulsed laser beam and apply the multiphoton excitation area to a biological sample,
• wherein:
• the one or more first elements include a spherical lens configured to shape an area of light on a first dispersive element of the one or more dispersive elements,
• the one or more manipulating elements manipulate the spherical lens to generate a trajectory on the first dispersive element corresponding to the multiphoton excitation area, and
• the device is configured to record at high-speed changes of cellular or biochemical processes of a population of cells of the biological sample based on application of the multiphoton excitation area to the biological sample.