Adrian ȘALIC received his PhD in Cell Biology from Harvard University, after which he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School. He is currently Professor of Cell Biology at Harvard Medical School. His lab focuses on two directions: 1) using chemical biology, biochemistry and cell biology to elucidate mechanisms involved in cell-cell signaling; 2) developing chemical methods for metabolic labeling and microscopic visualization of various biological molecules in vivo. The list of publication is available here.
Dr. Mihaela MATACHE is an organic chemist (Ph.D. 2009) with expertise in multi-step organic synthesis. Her research interests focus on synthesis of nitrogen-containing heterocycles or other building blocks useful in supramolecular chemistry, biochemistry or bioorganic chemistry, as well as development of novel synthetic methodologies and (photo)physical characterization of the resulted structures, solid-phase peptide synthesis and incorporation into chemical probes for protein profiling. More information are available here.
Dr. Codruța POPESCU is an organic chemist (PhD 2011) interested in preparation of heterocyclic compounds. Her research focused on synthesis of oxadiazole-based compounds useful as luminescent materials, dual luminescent-paramagnetic probes etc, as well as bis-N-acylhydrazones as switchable molecules, acyloxymethylketones as inhibitors of cysteine proteases or bifunctional chelating ligands aimed for preparation of new solid matrices useful in affinity chromatography for proteins purification. She was involved in 8 national, very diverse research projects with an inter-disciplinary character, combining organic chemistry with biochemistry, molecular biology or physical chemistry. She is the author of 35 publications.
Dr. Augustin M. MĂDĂLAN received a MD degree from Bucharest Medicine and Pharmacy University ‘‘Carol Davila’’ (1998) and a BS degree in Chemistry from the University of Bucharest, Romania (2000). He received his PhD from the University of Bucharest with Prof. Marius Andruh (2004). After two postdoctoral research fellowships at the Université d’Angers with Dr. Narcis Avarvari and Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires, Strasbourg – ISIS, with Professor Jean-Marie Lehn, he returned to the University of Bucharest (2008). His research focuses on luminescent materials for biomedical applications, metallo-supramolecular chemistry and crystal engineering.
Dr. Florentina PENA is researcher at the Institute of Biochemistry, Bucharest since 2009. Education: PhD (2006), University of Bucharest, University of Bucharest, Faculty of Biology, Department of Animal Physiology and Biophysics with Professor Maria Luisa Flonta. Postdoctoral studies: 2006-2008, Utrecht University, Faculty of Science, Cellular Protein Chemistry Department, Professor Ineke Braakman, the Netherlands. Awards: FEBS short term fellowship (2004) at Utrecht University, The Netherlands, EMBO short term fellowship (2016), Glasgow University, UK, PhD student on a Marie Curie training site (2002-2003) Utrecht University, The Netherlands. 3 grants obtained as principal investigator (2010, 2016, 2023)
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7127-9219
Dr. Anamaria HANGANU (PhD 2011) is an experience researcher and her research activity is focused in the field of NMR spectroscopy. She has strong experience in NMR characterization of a large diversity of organic compounds, polymers, natural compounds, complexes. She was involved in several national projects with an interdisciplinary character, combining NMR spectroscopy with organic chemistry, biochemistry, physical chemistry and physics. Her scientific results were published in over 90 papers (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0433-752X), Hirsch index 15 with more than 600 citations.
Dr. Daniel P. FUNERIU has a long-lasting experience in organic synthesis as well as chemical engineering. He graduated from European Higher Institute of Chemistry of Strasbourg (EHICS) and was awarded his PhD at the University of Strasbourg, in the laboratory of prof. J.-M. Lehn, Nobel laureate in chemistry in 1987. Dr. Funeriu established his research group at the Technical University Munich, until he was nominated Minister of Education, Research, Youth and Sports in the Romanian Government, resulting in a scientific career discontinuity. His scientific expertise includes organic synthesis, peptide and protein (bio)chemistry, in particular: site-specific protein functionalization, peptide/protein self-assembly, active protein/enzyme surface immobilization, design and synthesis of activity-based probes for enzymes of interest, drug-activity assay development, microarray technology, chemical probes for the investigation of interactional maps as well as the use of proteins as building blocks for the construction of polymeric and supramolecular super-structures.
Dr. Cristina TABLET – holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Bucharest (2007). She has
extensive experience in characterizing the photophysical properties of organic compounds and in
correlating experimental and theoretical data. In 2010 she was granted a two and a half years postdoctoral fellowship co-financed by the European Social Fund for the project „Structural and thermodynamic characterization of the molecular interactions in supramolecular systems (ligands-cyclodextrins and ligands-proteins)”. She has served as project manager for one research grant (PN II IDEI) and has participated as a team member in other 12 research projects on the subject of photophysical properties of molecules and non-covalent intermolecular interactions. Dr. Tablet has extensive experience in spectroscopic methods (UV-VIS, steady state and time resolved fluorescence, circular dichroism, Raman) and quantum chemical computations. She is coauthor of 36 ISI papers (282 citations, Hirsch index 12). Her contribution to this project include spectroscopic measurements and DFT calculations.
Dr. Anca PAUN graduated Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest, specialization Chemistry in French as well as she is MSc in Chimie Organique-Physique since 2001. Her doctoral studies, performed under supervision of Prof. Vasile Pârvulescu, involved investigation of thioorganic electrophilic alternative coupling partners in the Sonogashira reaction. During her MSc and PhD she has performed three research internships at the University of Caen, Faculty of Pharmacy funded by Sanofi Synthėlabo, in the group of Prof. Rault and also at the University of Orleans – ICOA, within Prof. Guillaumet group. Dr. Anca Paun interests are in synthesis of heterocycles, cross-couplings reactions.
Dr. Ioana NICOLAU studied chemistry at the University of Bucharest (Romania) where she received her master’s degree in „Synthèse, structure, réactivité appliquées aux médicaments” in 2007 and defended her PhD thesis in 2012. During the doctorate, she benefited from a research DAAD scholarship at Technical University of Munich. In 2008 she joined the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, at University of Bucharest where she is currently a teaching assistant. After her doctoral studies, she obtained expertise in biochemistry and molecular biology. Her scientific interests are focused at the boundary between chemistry and biochemistry, in areas such as solid support peptide synthesis, bioconjugation and classical organic synthesis. She was a team member in 4 international and 7 national research projects.
Dr. Magdi EL FERGANI earned his Master’s degree in the Chemistry of Advanced Materials program in 2017 from the Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest. Dr. El Fergani further pursued doctoral studies at the same university, graduatingg in 2021. His doctoral research focused on catalysis and catalytic reactions for biomass valorization, contributing to significant advancements in the field. After his Ph.D., Dr. El Fergani undertook a two-year postdoctoral position at the Catalysis and Catalytic Processes Research Centre. He has contributed to five national research projects and has been awarded two Erasmus fellowships. Dr. El Fergani is an expert in the preparation of nanocomposite materials and fine chemistry.
Dr. Oana DUMITRAȘCU – Ph.D. in Exact Sciences, Chemistry field, obtained in 2016, and a scientific researcher at the University of Bucharest with 15 years of experience in the field of sensors and biosensors based on carbon nanomaterials and enzymes for detecting mycotoxins in bread, ethanol in alcoholic beverages and food products, lactic acid in the human body, and in food products. Expertise in the use of analytical methods such as cyclic voltammetry, amperometry, chronoamperometry, square wave voltammetry; spectrophotometric methods, SPR, RAMAN, and FTIR.
Dr. Anca Gabriela MIREA – studied chemistry at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry were she received her master’s degree in 2015 and defended her PhD thesis in 2020. Her doctoral studies, performed under the supervision of Prof. Petre Ionita, aimed the synthesis and study of optical properties of some N-acylhydrazone derivatives, oxadiazole heterocycles and profluorescent nitroxides. Her research
focuses on organic synthesis, hybrid organic-inorganic materials, solid surface characterization, catalytic processes.
Dr. Mihaela TRANDAFIR – obtained her PhD title in 2019 at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, with the study “New porous based catalysts for selective hydrogenation reactions” under the coordination of Prof. Vasile I. Parvulescu. The subject of the thesis involved reseach of the catalytic properties of carbon based materials as graphene, activated carbon, covalent organic frameworks, porous organic frameworks and porous organic polymers, materials which were further tested in hydrogenation reactions. She led a postoctoral research project in the period 2021-2023 “Materiale catalitice chemoselective cu conţinut scăzut de metal nobil şi cu proprietăţi magnetice”. Her research focused on the advanced materials synthesis, solids surface characterization, catalytic processes, acid-base catalysis, oxidation reaction, hydrogenation reaction and green chemistry.
PhD student Nicoleta SANDU – received her BSc (2019) and MSc (2021) from the University of Bucharest and she is currently a PhD student in the organic chemistry group, acquiring new skills in organic synthesis and characterization of organic compounds.
PhD student Bogdan Constantin ENACHE – received his BSc (2019) from Babeș-Bolyai University and MSc (2021) from the University of Bucharest. His master’s thesis “Azoheteroaryl molecular photoswitches” was awarded “The Best Master’s Thesis in Exact Sciences and Engineering” by the University of Bucharest Senate. Currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Bucharest, his research focuses on novel photoswitchable scaffolds. Alongside his academic pursuits, he has gained extensive experience in R&D at Microsin SRL, where he worked on small-molecule API synthesis and process development. He also collaborated on high-profile projects, such as designing and implementing a large-scale demonstration of Briggs-Rauscher reaction for Alexandra Pirici’s performative installation, “Attune,” showcased in Berlin.
PhD student Diandra GHEORGHE– received her BSc (2019) and MSc (2021) from the University of Bucharest. She is currently a PhD student, working in organic synthesis of small-molecules able to coordinate to metal-ions. Such hybrid materials may have benefits in both materials sciences, for example to capture carbon dioxide, but also in biology-related applications, for example in fluorescence microscopy of cellular events.
PhD student Alexandru Mihai MOLENȚA – received his BSc in Chemistry (2022) and MSc in Chemistry of Advanced Materials (2024) from the University of Bucharest and he is currently a PhD student in the organic chemistry group, working on the synthesis and characterization of some fluorescent/ fluorogenic substrates.
MSc. student Valentin DUMITRU graduated in 2024 with a BSc. degree in Technological Biochemistry from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry. He is currently enrolled in a Master’s programme in the field of Biochemistry at the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry.
MSc student Daniela Mihaela MUȘETESCU is currently studying Biomolecules at the University of Bucharest. In 2024 she graduated Chemistry programme from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry.
Former team members
MSc student Andrada Irina EREMIA is graduate in 2023 from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, Medicinal Chemistry. She graduated Master program Biomolecules at the same institution and was a member of ProLip team during July 2023-August 2025.
MSc student Teodora Christina PURICE is graduate in 2023 from the University of Bucharest, Faculty of Chemistry, Pharmaceutical Chemistry. She graduated Master program Biomolecules at the same institution and was a member of ProLip team during October 2023-September 2025.
PhD student Adela DOBRE (SIMENE) – received her BSc (2019) and MSc (2021) from the University of Bucharest and benefited from a research internship at ICOA, Orléans, France. She is enrolled as PhD student of the University of Bucharest, in the final phase of the thesis and was a member of ProLip team during July 2023-October 2024.
Alexandra BUMBACARU is a graduate (2022) of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemistry, University of Bucharest. In 2024, Alexandra graduated the master study programme in Chemistry of Drugs and Cosmetics. She was a member of ProLip team during July 2023-July 2024.
