Enrico Gratton completed his graduate studies at the University of Rome, working on a physics thesis related to DNA molecules, chromosomes.
At Illinois, Gratton established the Laboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics (LFD) in 1986 with long-term funding from the NIH, bringing advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques to the study of biological systems.
The LFD gained international recognition for its development of instrumentation for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy using frequency domain methods.
[4] At the LFD, scientists use fluorescence to study cellular processes, including protein aggregation, membrane interactions, and migration of cells, to track moving particles, and to analyze collagen formation and deformation.
[7] Fluorescence Recovery After Photobleaching (FRAP) helps measure dynamics and mobility of molecules within complex biological systems.