Research Interests

• Synthesis of multifunctional polymer-coated gold nano-objects with attractive optical properties, for various application such as biosensing, bioimaging and therapeutic assays.
• Investigation of intrinsic multi-photon photoluminescence of gold nanoparticles for the development of efficient label-free bioimaging and immunodetection applications
• Implementation of new analysis and spectroscopic imaging methods through exploiting the performances of MicroTime200 confocal microscopy system coupled with femto-second Titanium:Sapphire laser
• Simulation of optical properties of metallic nanoparticles and nanostructures using FDTD method

Expertise

• Synthesis of multifunctional colloidal gold nanoparticles and nanoclusters
• Steady-state and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy
• Fluorescence-based detection assays
• Non-linear optics
• Spectroscopic techniques (absorption, DLS, zeta potential)
• FDTD-based numerical simulations 

International visibility

• Co-author of 67 ISI papers (19 as a main author/corresponding author), 1 book chapter (Elsevier) and 2 national patents (RO135233 (B1) 2023 and A00598 2024))
• Citations: 2347 (Scholar) / 1728 (WoS, without self-citations)
• Hirsh index: 27 (Scholar) / 24 (WoS)
• 5 national projects/grants/scholarships (total amount ~260.000 euro) as project leader, key member in 17 other national (13) and international (4) research projects
• Scientific Excellence Diploma from Babeș-Bolyai University in 2017
• Special Mention award and Excellence Diploma in the national contest “The Rada Mihalcea Awards for Young Researchers in Science and Engineering”, 6th edition, Cluj-Napoca, 2020
• The "Dragomir Hurmuzescu" prize awarded by the Romanian Academy in the Physical Sciences category in 2023, for works published in 2021

Web of Science ResearcherID: C-6735-2012  > webofscience.com

ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6561-0972  >  orcid.org 

BrainMap ID: U-1700-039X-3567  >  brainmap.ro

Google Scholar: scholar.google.ro

Email: ana.gabudean@ubbcluj.ro

Most Relevant Publications

A.M. Craciun, S. Astilean, M. Focsan, M. Lamy de la Chapelle, Gold nanoparticles conjugated with fluorophore-labeled DNA: overview of sensing and imaging applications, TrAC Trends Anal. Chem., 180 (2024) 117913

M. Zetes, A.-M. Hada, M. Todea, L. I. Gaina, S. Astilean, A. M. Craciun, Dual-emissive solid-state histidine-stabilized gold nanoclusters for applications in white-light generation, Nanoscale Adv., 5 (2023) 5810-5818 (corresponding author)

Glutathione-capped gold nanoclusters as near-infrared-emitting efficient contrast agents for confocal fluorescence imaging of tissue-mimicking phantoms, A.-M. Hada, A.-M. Craciun, M. Focsan, A. Vulpoi, E.-L. Borcan, S. Astilean, Microchimica Acta, 189 (2022) 337

One-photon excited photoluminescence of gold nanospheres and its application in prostate specific antigen detection via fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), A-M Craciun, S. Suarasan, M. Focsan, S. Astilean, Talanta, 228 (2021) 122242

Folic acid functionalized gold nanoclusters for enabling targeted fluorescence imaging of human ovarian cancer cells, A.-M. Hada, A.-M. Craciun, M. Focsan, R. Borlan, O. Soritau, M. Todea, S. Astilean, Talanta, 225 (2021) 121960

Enhanced one- and two-photon excited fluorescence of cationic (phenothiazinyl)vinyl-pyridinium chromophore attached to polyelectrolyte-coated gold nanorods , A. M. Craciun, M. Focsan, L. Gaina, S. Astilean, Dyes Pigm., 136 (2017) 24 - 30

Gold Nanorods Performing as Dual-Modal Nanoprobes via Metal- Enhanced Fluorescence (MEF) and Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) , A. M. Gabudean, M. Focsan, S. Astilean, J. Phys. Chem. C, 116 (2012) 12240 - 12249