News

Sept 2024 - Master student Andreea Balmus was awarded with Best Poster Presentation Award at the 7th edition of International Conference on Analytical and Nanoanalytical Methods for Biomedical and Environmental Sciences ( IC-ANMBES 2024), Brasov, Romania, 17 - 20 September 2024 for the contribution entitled "Magnetic nanoparticles coated with bovine serum albumin and grafted with curcumin as innovative theranostic agents".
Jul 2024 - PhD student Daria Stoia was awarded with Doctoral Advanced Fellowship from Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology- STAR-UBB Institute.
Jun 2024 - PhD student Daria Stoia won a scholarship within the program "Bourses France Excellence Roumanie" (French Government Scholarships) 2024, provided by the French government for Romanian students in order to promote educational exchanges and strengthen the academic ties between France and Romania. Daria won with her project entitled: "Novel plasmon-assisted biosensor for detection of cardiac Troponin I biomarker"
2024 - PhD student Ismaël Mahboub, from the Doctoral School of Physics of our university, won the 1^stplace at the 7th edition of the International French-speaking competition "My Thesis in 180 Seconds", in both national (18 Jun 2024) and Eastern-Europe (Sept 2024) competitions organized by the University Agency of Francophonie in Central and Eastern Europe (AUF-BECO) and the French Institute in Romania at Bucharest (IFR). Ismaël won with his thesis « La nano-detection, le futur de la mécine » ("Nanodetection, the future of medicine"). From the speech: “The subject of my thesis involves the development of nanobiosensors, combining the prowess of nanotechnology and medicine in order to detect the smallest anomalies of the organism.”

2024 - PhD student Daria Stoia was awarded the Excellentia Student prize at The XI^th edition of the Excellentia Awards, Babes-Bolyai University

2024 - The article " Advancing MRI with magnetic nanoparticles: a comprehensive review of translational research and clinical trials", by R. Lapusan, R. Borlan M. Focsan, published in Nanoscale Adv., 2024, 6, 2234-2259 has been featured on the back cover of the article's issue - details

2024 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2024 - The article "Portable microfluidic plasmonic chip for fast real-time cardiac troponin I biomarker thermoplasmonic detection", by A. Campu, I. Muresan, M. Potara, D. R. Lazar, F. L. Lazar, S. Cainap, D. M. Olinic, D. Maniu, S. Astilean, M. Focsan, published in J. Mater. Chem. B, 12 (2024) 962-972 has been featured on the front cover of the article's issue - details

2024 - PhD Alexandru-Milentie Hada was awarded with Postdoctoral Advanced Fellowship from Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology- STAR-UBB Institute.
2023 - CS I Ana-Maria Craciun was awarded with “Dragomir Hurmuzescu” prize of the Romanian Academy, in the Physical Sciences category, for year 2021 - details

2023 - The project entitled " Plasmon mediated biology: Exploitation of plasmonics to investigate and enhance biological processes and application to biomedical issues", Project Code: CF 199/28.11.2022, led by Marc Lamy de la Chapelle, has been accepted for funding in the PNRR - Pillar III, Component C9, Investment I8. Development of a program to attract highly specialised human resources from abroad in research, development and innovation activities competition and will be implemented in our group in the Jul 2023 - Jun 2026 period - details

2023 - CS I Monica Focsan and master student Daria Stoia were awarded the Excellentia Teacher and Excellentia Student prizes at The X^th edition of the Excellentia Awards, Babes-Bolyai University

Feb 2023 - PhD student Alexandru Holca won a World Federation of Scientists (WFS) scholarship within the WFS 2022-2023 competition with his research project “New NIR light activable hybrid theranostic agents for combined multimodal therapy of cancer”.
2023 - The Nanobiophotonics and Laser Microspectroscopy Center, led by Prof. Dr. Simion Aștilean, was awarded the "Experienced Researchers - Teams" trophy at the 1^st Romanian Research Gala organized by the Ministry of Research, Innovation and Digitalization at the Romanian Athenaeum in Bucharest on 31^th of January 2023 - details (starting from 1:30:00)
2022 - The results obtained in the project PN-III-P4-ID-PCCF-2016-0142, entitled "New Targeted Optical Imaging NanoProbes for Near-Infrared (NIR) Real-Time (RT) Image-Guided Surgery of Ovarian Cancer" were disseminated in media on reportermedical.ro - details
26 Oct 2022 - Prof. Dr. Simion Aștilean has been elected as a correspondent member of the Romanian Academy (Physical Science section), being included within the world's top 2% of the most cited researchers in the applied physics domain - in particular nanoscience and nanotechnology - details

2022 - The special issue entitled "Bridging molecules and nanoparticles - the way from optical spectroscopy to cancer therapy", edited by Vasile Chiș, Monica Focșan, Marc Lamy de la Chapelle and Rui Fausto, published in Journal of Molecular Structure (Elsevier), was dedicated to Prof. Simion Aștilean on the occasion of his 65^th birthday and retirement from the Faculty of Physics, Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania - details

2022 - Bachelor students Madalina Tudor, Mihnea Moruz and Vlad Cucuiet, coordinated by CS I Monica Focsan, were awarded with 1 year Special Scholarships for Research Activity, from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2022 - Student Madalina-Maria Tudor was awarded with Best Poster Presentation Award at 17th National Conference of Biophysics, Tg. Mures, Romania, 23-25 September 2022.
2022 - PhD Andreea Campu was awarded with Best Presentation Award and Certificate of Attendance and Appreciation for Session Chair activity at ICMLC 2022: XVI. International Conference on Microfluidics and Lab-on-a-Chip, 23-24 June 2022.
2022 - Student Markus Zetes was awarded with the Best Poster Presentation Award at International Conference of Analytical and Nanoanalytical Methods for Biomedical and Environmental Sciences, IC-ANMBES 2022, Brasov, Romania, 8-10 June 2022 - details
2021 - Master students Daria Stoia and Markus Zetes, coordinated by CS I Monica Focsan and CS III Ana-Maria Craciun, respectively, were awarded with 1 year Special Scholarships for Research Activity, from Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2021 - PhD Andreea Campu was awarded with Danubius Young Scientist Award, 2021 - for Romania - details
2021 - The article "Gold nanoclusters performing as contrast agents for non-invasive imaging of tissue-like phantom via two-photon excited fluorescence lifetime imaging" , A.-M. Hada, A. M. Craciun, S. Astilean, published in Analyst, 2021, 146, 7126-7130 has been featured on the back cover of the article's issue.
2021 - The national patent "Microfluidic Plasmonic Device based on Gold Bipiyamidal Nanoparticles" by Monica Focsan, Andreea Campu, Simion Astilean, Teodora Murariu, Ioan Turcu, was awarded with Gold Medal at EuroInvent 13^th edition, Iasi, Romania.

2020 - Prof. Dr. Simion Astilean was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research for high-level International visibility, from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2020 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2020 - CS I Sanda Boca-Farcău was awarded with L’Oreal -UNESCO Fellowship “Women in Science”, section Physical Sciences - details
2020 - We are happy to announce that 4 project proposals have been accepted for funding in the National 2019 UEFISCDI Human Resources competitions: Young Research Teams projects (CS I Monica Focsan and CSIII Ana-Maria Craciun) and Postdoctoral Research projects (PhD Sorina Suarasan and PhD Andra-Sorina Tatar).
2020 - CS I Monica Focsan and CS II Monica Potara were awarded with Intern Advanced Fellowships from Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology- STAR-UBB Institute.
2020 - CS III Ana-Maria Craciun received Special Mention award and an Excellence Diploma in the national contest “The Rada Mihalcea Awards for Young Researchers in Science and Engineering”, 6th edition, Cluj-Napoca - details
2019 - CS I Cosmin Farcau was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2018 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with “Constantin Miculescu prize” of the Romanian Academy, in the Physical Sciences category, for year 2016 - details
2018 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with an Advanced Fellowship from Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology- STAR-UBB Institute.
2017 - CS I Cosmin Farcau was awarded 1^st place and received an Excellence Diploma in the national contest “The Rada Mihalcea Awards for Young Researchers in Science and Engineering”, 3rd edition, Cluj-Napoca - details

Source of photo: abcnewstransilvania.ro

2017 - CS I Sanda Boca-Farcau received Special Mention award and an Excellence Diploma in the national contest “The Rada Mihalcea Awards for Young Researchers in Science and Engineering”, 3rd edition, Cluj-Napoca - details
2017 - CS I Cosmin Farcau was awarded with an Advanced Fellowship from Institute for Advanced Studies in Science and Technology- STAR-UBB Institute.
2017 - CS III Ana-Maria Craciun was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2016 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded 2^nd place and received an Excellence Diploma in the national contest “The Rada Mihalcea Awards for Young Researchers in Science and Engineering”, 2nd edition, Cluj-Napoca - details

Source of photo: primariaclujnapoca.ro

2016 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.
2016 - CS I Monica Focsan was awarded with L’Oreal -UNESCO Fellowship “Women in Science”, section Physical Sciences - details

Source of photos: revistabiz.ro

2015 - CS II Monica Potara was awarded with an Excellence Diploma in Scientific Research from Babeș-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca.

ISI journal covers featuring scientific articles published in our group
2013 - The project “Biofunctional nanoparticles for development of new methods of imaging, sensing, diagnostic and therapy in biological environment (CNCSIS ID_PCCE 129/2008, Prof. Dr. Simion Astilean as principal investigator) is featured in UEFISCDI brochure entitled: "Stories about Complex IDEA projects and successful people" – http://uefiscdi.gov.ro/articole/3465/Povesti-despre-IDEI-complexe-si-oameni-de-succes.html.