FIGURE 1.

Principle of separation of small biological objects, exemplified by the isolation of parts of a histologic section. The section is placed on a thin, UV-absorbing polymer foil that is mounted on a routine microscope glass slide. A region of interest is dissected from the section using a series of focused UV-A laser pulses (LMD, marked by arrowheads) and subsequently catapulted (LPC, marked by an arrow) into the cap of a microfuge tube by a final, typically more energetic, laser pulse. The catapulting pulse can be directed either in the center or in the periphery of the dissected specimen.