Members


Dr. Nicoleta Elena DINA received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics (2008) and the Specialization in Biomedical Physics (2010) from Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). She has completed her Ph.D. (2013) at Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) with specialization in Physics. She completed a six months internship (September 2012-February 2013) at Technische Universität München (TUM), München, Germany, where she contributed at the optimization of the single-cell SERS-based detection methodology of uropathogens. Since 2015 she is working at the National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as Research Assistant. Her research main interest is using SERS in real-life applications. Dr. Dina was a referee at Journal of Spectroscopy and at AIP Conference Proceedings. Also she is a member of the Romanian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics.

Dr. Alia COLNIŢӐ received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics (2009) and the Specialization in Biomedical Physics (2011) from Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). She has completed her Ph.D. (2014) at Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) with specialization in Physics. She won a 6 months Erasmus scholarship (October 2010-March 2011) at University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany, where she completed several studies involving the physical-chemical characterization of biomolecules. In the period 2014-2015 she also attended two training visits at Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland, where she paticipated to the deposition and characterization of supramolecular structures self-assembled on metallic surfaces. Since 2012 she is working at the National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as Scientific Researcher. Her research interests concern the use of vibrational spectroscopies in real-life applications and the development of sensors based on selfassembled molecular structures. Dr. Colniţă was a referee for Analytical Letters and Spectroscopy journal. Starting with 2014, she is also the treasurer of the Romanian Society of Pure and Applied Biophysics, Cluj branch.

Dr. Flavia - Adina MARTIN received her Bachelor in Chemical Engineer in (2005) and the Specialization in Advanced Organic Chemistry in (2007) from Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania). She has completed her Ph.D. (2012) with joint supervision from Babeş-Bolyai University (Cluj-Napoca, Romania) and Rouen University (France) with specialization in Chemistry. She completed a one year and a half internship (January 2009-July 2010) at Rouen University, France, at the Institute of Fine Organic Chemistry Research (IFOCR). Since 2006 she is working at the National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as Research Assistant for starters and since 2012, as Scientific Researcher III. Her research main interest is the synthesis of solid forms for active pharmaceuticals and dendritic structures. In this project, she is preparing layers of organic compounds on glass surfaces, used for the immobilization of the pathogens, prior to their SERS detection.

Dr. Ionuţ Bogdan COZAR graduated the Faculty of Physics from the Babeş-Bolyai University, in 2007 and obtained a Master degree two years later in Biophysics and Medical Physics. He has completed his Ph.D. in Physics (2011, Babeş-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania) with the thesis: Structural Investigation on Some Molecular Complexes of Biomedical Interest. Beginning with 2011, he started working at National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM), Cluj-Napoca, Romania, as a Senior Research Scientist - grade III. In 2010 he completed a Doctoral internship at Rheinisch-Westfaelische Technische Hochschule Aachen University, Germany, focusing on NMR spectroscopy - Magic Angle Spinning. In 2011 he participated at an advanced Training in Tip Enhanced Raman and Fluorescence Microscopy, confocal microRaman simultaneous with AFM, TERS (Dr. Shelaev Artem, Russia) at National Research and Development Institute of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM) Cluj-Napoca, Romania. In 2012 he made a visit at Technishe Universitat Chemnitz, Institut für Physik where he was trainined in TERS techniques. His key qualifications are investigating organic molecules adsorbed on metal and semiconductor surfaces by using AFM, STM, confocal Raman, SERS and TERS and computing DFT calculations on organic molecular structures for investigating molecules/surface interactions.

Drd. Tiberiu SZÖKE-NAGY received his BSc in Biology and MSc in Cellular Biotransformation during 2006-2011 and is a PhD student in Biology since 2011. Starting with 2013, he was involved in several research projects hosted by the Institute of Biological Research Cluj-Napoca, National Institute for R&D for Biological Sciences (INCDSB) Bucharest, as Assistant Researcher, being assigned to environmental sample collecting, DNA and RNA isolation, purification and quantification, identification of bacterial strains using 16S RNA molecular markers and analysis of sequenced fragments. As a PhD student, his research activity is mainly focused on Molecular Biology (Initiation of the algal cultures of Botryococcus braunii, DNA and RNA Isolation, cDNA Synthesis; Identification and bioinformatic analysis of SSLs (squalene synthase-like) from different strains of B. braunii; Identification, and isolation of gene responsible for SSL activity in the same algae strains) and Environmental Microbiology and Metagenomics. Since July 2016 he is a member in the research team of this project, being in charge of biological sample preparation, manipulation and Molecular Biology specific analysis.

Drd. Ana - Maria - Raluca GHERMAN, our youngest member, received her Bachelor Degree in Medical Physics (2013) and the Master Degree in Biomedical Physics (2015) from Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca (Romania). She is a fresh PhD student (since October 2015) at the Faculty of Physics of Babeş-Bolyai University. The main fields of study of her interest are computational chemistry and molecular modeling. Her research at the Faculty of Physics focuses on the study of biomolecular ligand-receptor systems, using pharmaceutical ligands and employing experimental spectroscopies (Raman, NMR) and theoretical methods (DFT, QM/MM, etc). She became part of our team in July 2016 and she will take care of the least experimental tasks of the project.

Drd. Alin Sebastian PORAV received his BSc in Biology and MSc in Molecular Biotechnology during 2008-2013 and is a PhD student in Biology since 2013. During Bachelor and MSc studies, Sebastian worked as a volunteer at the Electron Microscopy Center, Babeş-Bolyai University, where he developed skills in sample preparation, analysis of biological and material science samples under both types of electron microscopes TEM and SEM. As a PhD, his research is focused on determining the 3D structure of molecular complexes, mainly a light harvesting antenna from cyanobacteria, using negative staining TEM and crio-TEM. From October 2015, he is working as a Research Assistant in the Integrated Electron Microscopy Laboratory (LIME) at National Institute for Research and Development of Isotopic and Molecular Technologies (INCDTIM). He's main responsibiliī€¸es are HRTEM analysis and sample preparation, analytical TEM and SEM (HAADF, EDS, EBSD etc.) and classical analysis of material and biological samples. Since 2015, Sebastian was implicated in several research projects, mostly for Electron Microscopy analysis.