Ioana Blein

After a double bachelor’s degree on molecular and cellular biology and on chemistry at the University of Orleans, France, Ioana specialised in chemistry applied to diagnosis and treatment strategy by doing the Master’s degree in Chemistry, Biology and Medication at the University of Strasbourg, France. During that time, she did two internships, both focussing on cancer therapy. One was at the University of Barcelona on a pre-clinical trial of formoterol as a treatment for cancer cachexia. Her second internship in the Faculty of Pharmacy in Strasbourg was on the development of carbon dots as vector for intracellular co-delivery of metformin and a therapeutic siRNA to treat prostate cancer.

In the Biospec group, her PhD work will focus on the synthesis of gold nanoparticles for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) and photothermal therapy as part of the RaNT project, which aims to develop an all-in-one approach of cancer diagnosis and treatment using gold nanostructures.