Enrico Gratton, Ph.D.

The amount of scarring in damaged kidneys as a result of diabetes or acute injury, is a key factor in determining treatment. But it has not been possible, using traditional techniques, to quickly and accurately assess how widespread this kind of wounding extends within the organ. Now, however, a physicist and chemist at Georgetown University Medical Center has shown that a microscope he began developing with colleagues at University of California-Irvine can provide an immediate answer.

His findings, published in the journal Kidney International, suggest that, given further successful testing of this device, it could be adopted in an operating suite using biopsies, usually taken with a needle, from a patient’s kidney. These biopsies, which don’t need to be stained, will score the degree of tubulointerstitial fibrosis — progressive scarring due to a failed wound-healing process of kidney tissue after chronic, sustained injury. This score can then be combined with results from traditional pathology to help physicians assess long-term prognosis… Continue reading.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—The American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) has announced the induction of Enrico Gratton, Ph.D., Professor of Biomedical Engineering, University of California, Irvine, to its College of Fellows.

Election to the AIMBE College of Fellows is among the highest professional distinctions accorded to a medical and biological engineer. The College of Fellows is comprised of the top two percent of medical and biological engineers. College membership honors those who have made outstanding contributions to “engineering and medicine research, practice, or education” and to “the pioneering of new and developing fields of technology, making major advancements in traditional fields of medical and biological engineering, or developing/implementing innovative approaches to bioengineering education.”

Dr. Gratton was nominated, reviewed, and elected by peers and members of the College of Fellows for “seminal, outstanding contributions to the fields of fluorescence spectroscopy and imaging to study structure and function of biomolecules.”