Welcome to the web page of the research line Optical investigation of Dynamical Systems at the Italian Institute of Technology, Genoa, Italy.

Our mission

Measuring the molecular dynamics and interactions of biomolecules in live cells is crucial for understanding cellular mechanisms. While recent advances in super-resolution fluorescence microscopy have enabled molecular-level resolution in fixed samples, capturing dynamics in live cells remains a major challenge. Conventional methods for studying molecular dynamics struggle with high fluorophore concentrations, photobleaching, and the need for extensive prior knowledge about the setup and sample. In addition, measuring the molecular diffusion properties without knowing the local viscosity complicates the study of anomalous diffusion dynamics.

The overall goal of the lab is the development of a platform based on optical microscopy with massive information content to quantify molecular dynamics and local viscosity with unprecedented detail, speed, and ease of use. To this end, the ERC Starting Grant for the MotionPicture project involves the construction of a photon-resolved microscope combining fluorescence and Brillouin microscopy. We will use various methods to shape and move the fluorescence excitation beam and tag every emitted photon with multiple signatures, such as spatial information, time of arrival, and energy. We will develop a deep-learning based analysis framework to extract molecular dynamics information from the high-dimensional data set. In parallel, we use label-free Brillouin microscopy to correlate the fluorescence data with the biomechanical properties of the same sample. Compared to the state-of-the-art, this project aims to derive a more complete picture of the molecular dynamics and in a faster, more robust, less phototoxic, and more user-friendly way. The unique combination of the fluorescence and Brillouin information will have significant potential for the study of biomolecular dynamics. We will demonstrate this potential in the context of biomolecular condensates, which play a vital role in many processes and whose behavior has been associated with several diseases.